Detention

Set in 1962, during Taiwan’s White Terror, the film tells the story of a group of leftists at Cuihua High School in the mountains who refused to submit to authoritarian rule, joined an underground reading group to read banned books, and were finally punished by the state. The relationship between the student Fang Ray-shin and the teacher Chang Ming-hui, and the experience of the student Wei Chung-ting, open onto the struggle over personal freedom and belief under intense political pressure. The film draws a sharp picture of the price intellectuals and students paid for freedom of thought under totalitarian rule, and of the stifled atmosphere of Taiwanese society in the White Terror years.

Screenings of this film