A Better Place (留學生), a film exploring the increasingly blurred line between international students and migrant workers in Taiwan, was among the titles recognized at the first-ever Taiwan International Human Rights Film Awards.
The film follows two Vietnamese students, Ching-chun and Mei, who work at part-time jobs where they face exploitation and risk becoming undocumented workers in Taiwan.
It received the top prize in the Youth Category.
Photo courtesy of Public Television Service
An award ceremony was held on Sunday at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei following the conclusion of the film festival.
The film’s Malaysian director, Ben Oui, said he hoped to use the protagonists’ dual identities to provide a realistic portrayal of the daily struggles faced by people in similar situations.
The jury commended A Better Place for its in-depth portrayal of Taiwan’s deep-seated, systemic labor issues, the Ministry of Culture, which organized the festival, said in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, The Taste of Pork Belly (五花肉) by director Sophie Suei (隋淑芬) bagged the top prize in the Open Category.
Edited by Golden Horse Award-winning veteran Liao Ching-sung (廖慶松) and starring Esther Huang (小薰) and Tuo Tsung-hua (庹宗華), the film portrays the 1960s White Terror through the eyes of a young boy discovering his parents’ grim secrets, the ministry said.
The jury praised its literary storytelling and nuanced female perspective, describing it as a “silent indictment of the times,” it said.
Oui and Suei would each receive NT$150,000 in prize money.
In her remarks, Deputy Minister of Culture Sue Wang (王時思) said the entries covered a wide range of topics, including the White Terror era and labor rights, to judicial justice, freedom of religion and immigration, highlighting cinema’s power as a medium for collective memory and dialogue on human rights.
“These are stories that can only be told on free soil like Taiwan’s,” she said.
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