Faceless

Inspirational and often shocking account from within the 2019 protests against the Extradition Bill in Hong Kong. From the perspective of four very different, but equally determined young protesters, representing a generation willing to risk much in the battle for democracy.

‘You don’t persevere because you have hope,’ the activist known as ‘The Believer’ says at one point in Faceless. ‘You have hope because you persevere.’ Perseverance is something the people of Hong Kong have plenty of, now that China is increasingly curtailing democratic freedoms. When the authorities announced a bill allowing extraditions of Hong Kong citizens to mainland China, more than one million people took to the streets – and stayed there for months.

Faceless follows four of them. They remain anonymous behind masks and are simply known as The Student, The Artist, The Believer and The Daughter. The Believer is motivated by his Christian faith and slowly starts to doubt his non-violent principles. The Artist is a queer woman, afraid the protests are ‘too narrow’. The Student is armed with his photo camera. And The Daughter is a delightfully optimistic woman, who heartbreakingly tells of the conflict with her father, a policeman. Gripping account of four brave and personal journeys.