The 2015 Hong Kong film Ten Years (十年) will play at the Regent Square Theater on September 17 and 19 as part of this year's Silk Screen Film Festival. A July 2016 NPR profile provides a summary:
In the film, made for about $64,000, five directors imagine five different vignettes of what Hong Kong will be like in 2025.The September 17 screening starts at 4:15 pm, the September 19 at 6:00 pm. Tickets for both are available for purchase online. The theater is located at 1035 S. Braddock Ave. (map) in the Regent Square neighborhood, east of Squirrel Hill and Oakland.
It's a dispiriting vision: Local children are indoctrinated to spy on adults in scenes reminiscent of China's Cultural Revolution. A pro-democracy activist burns herself in front of the British Consulate to protest the U.K. handing Hong Kong back to China in 1997. Chinese government officials stage a murder to help usher in harsh national security laws.
Ten Years won Best Picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards in April — though the honor was never mentioned on the mainland, where a broadcast of the awards ceremony was cut off. The film has earned more than 10 times its budget at the Hong Kong box office. It's popular because it shows the hopes and fears of Hong Kong citizens living under Chinese rule, and because, in some ways, real life has caught up with the plot.
