A film about female political prisoners held on a volcanic islet off Taiwan’s eastern coast during martial law in the 1950s is scheduled for national release on Oct. 28, its producer said on Friday.
Untold Herstory (流麻溝十五號), a period piece based on the 2012 book Bonfire Island: Untold Herstory by Tsao Chin-jung (曹欽榮), was shot primarily around the former Green Island Prison, which now comprises Green Island White Terror Memorial Park, the film’s production company said.
The book is a collection of interviews conducted by Tsao with women who had been held as political prisoners at the so-called “concentration camps” on Green Island in 1953.
Photo courtesy of Thuann TAIWAN via CNA
The prison was constructed and operated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government during Taiwan’s period of martial law from 1949 to 1987.
The jail housed alleged political dissidents branded as “thought prisoners,” who were sent to the outlying islet to undergo political and ideological reform through labor and violent abuse disguised as training programs.
Director Zero Chou (周美玲) and leading actresses Yu Pei-jen (余佩真), Cindy Lien (連俞涵) and Herb Hsu (徐麗雯) said at a media event in August that shooting a scene involving death row inmates smiling for their final photographs was the most challenging part of the film.
The scene is based on photographs of the jail, where a number of prisoners smiled at the camera before being led to their executions.
The director and performers said it was difficult to understand whether the smiles were eerie representations of despair, brave acts of defiance or something else.
The film’s producer, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智), in a statement released on Friday thanked supporters who responded to his company’s crowdfunding initiative for the film.
A total of NT$12 million (US$388,412) has been raised since July 27, with the money helping to pay debts left by initial investors who backed out either due to the COVID-19 pandemic or the sensitive subject of the film, he said.
Yao founded Thuann TAIWAN after failing to unseat incumbent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in the Taipei mayoral election in 2018. He said before the election that he would leave politics if he lost.
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