A Day to Remember / 忘卻的一天 (Liu Wei)

It is June 4th, 2005, and the Chinese filmmaker Lui Wei has headed to the University of Beijing and Tiananmen Square with a camera and one simple question. "Do you know what day it is today?" he asks the students and young people passing by.

As many have already guessed, it is the 16th anniversary of the student uprising at Tiananmen Square, in which several hundred protesters were killed at the hands of the Chinese military. As Liu continues his questioning, most say they know nothing about it and quickly go on their way, or look blankly into the camera. "I don't want to talk about it," "Turn the camera off" and "I don't know" are the most common answers - evidence that the revolt is still a taboo subject in China.

Liu's film depicts how the chaos and violence of that day have been replaced by silence. He shows how young people are unaware that the subject was a banned topic of conversation for years and that the revolt was covered up by authorities. But with this film, Liu breaks the silence by showing their denial.

15min