HONG KONG,
HANDOVER
GENERATION

In autumn 2016, twenty years after the handover to China and the introduction of the “one country, two systems” formula, four newly-elected Hong Kong MPs caused a political upheaval in the former British colony by refusing to take the oath of office under the terms laid down by law – the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has been an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China since July 1st 1997.
Yau Wai-ching, Sixtus Leung, Nathan Law and Eddie Chu, who came up through the student trade union movement and were leading figures in the Umbrella Revolution alongside leader Joshua Wong, defied the Chinese authorities by asserting the right to self-determination. Their credo: it is not for Beijing to manage Hong Kong’s affairs, but for Hong Kongers to take their destiny into their own hands.
Shot three years before the 2020 national security law and 2021 electoral changes, criminalising opposition to total and definitive control by mainland China, Alain Lewkowicz’s film offers a portrait of this generation, which denounces the gradual loss of individual freedoms and of Hong Kong culture.