Skip to content
R18

THE MAN WHO COULDN'T LEAVE

Genre
Historical and Documentary
Running time
45 minutes
Year
2022
Language
Mandarin
Subtitle
English
Country
Taiwan R.O.C.
Director
Singing Chen
Bio
Producer
Shih-Ken Lin
Cast
Ju Lin, Sou Gaku, Peijia Huang, Monmon Peng, Chia-Kuei Chen, Li-Li Pan
Scriptwriter
Singing Chen, Yi-An Lou, Hsin-I Lin
Within the walls of the former Green Island prison, political detainee A-Kuen, tells the stories of imprisonment and persecution happened in the 1950s in Taiwan. Among fellow inmates, frozen in time, he recounts his own experiences and those of his friend, A-Ching, who never made it out. Experience the time and place, and the waiting, in hope, for a chance to keep the stories alive. The Man Who Couldn’t Leave integrates the stories of numerous political victims of the White Terror and told through the form of an undelivered family letter. An immersive VR experience of hope, fear and camaraderie.

Other movies

MY WAY

Director: Thierry Teston

Many people are unaware that the iconic song My Way, most famously recorded by Frank Sinatra but covered by everyone from Pavarotti to Sid Vicious and Robbie Williams, was based on the melody of a French tune. In 1967, composer Jacques Revaux and singer Claude Francois wrote Comme D'habitute while sitting by Francois’ swimming pool. Not long after that, it made its way to the United States, where Paul Anka wrote the words that Frank Sinatra would make famous; since then, it has crossed eras, borders and generations. In commemoration of 50 years of My Way, the directors assemble archival footage, interview musicians and unearth new anecdotes to piece together the tune's history, with the song personified by Jane Fonda's narration.

AGORA

Director: Ala Eddine Slim

A blue dog and a black crow narrate the strange story of three revenants – people who are not quite dead, but not alive either – who resurge in a remote town, reviving the unsolved mysteries around their respective disappearances. Fathi, the local police inspector, is on the case, assisted by his friend Amine, the local doctor. What begins as a conventionally recognisable crime thriller, however, becomes more of a mood piece once Omar, a police investigator from the city, arrives to shine a light on what has happened and is overwhelmed by the irrationality of the chain of events. At once absurd and disturbing, Agora gradually reveals itself as both poetic fable and a political commentary on the state of Tunisia.

FREEDOM WAY

Director: Afolabi Olalekan

When two young software engineers set up EasyGo, a ride-sharing scheme for commercial motorcyclists  in hectic Lagos, it is a godsend to riders like Abiola, who is soon depending on its customers to support his family. The success of the app, however, attracts the attention of corrupt police and government ministers who contrive to get it banned. Other stories – one about a doctor wrestling with his conscience, one about two police officers at loggerheads over the common practice of shaking down young people in the street – show that this kind of low-level violence is everywhere.. Like Lagos itself, the melodramatic storylines are fast and intense; as the characters’ stories start to dovetail, as if the city itself were pushing them together.