Ai Weiwei’s “Cockroach” (2020) is a documentary film about the protests in Hong Kong in 2019. 

In February 2019, the Hong Kong government proposed a bill, which would have allowed extradition of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to face trial in mainland China. The controversial bill sparked immediate outrage over widespread fear of arbitrary detention and politically motivated trials that would decimate Hong Kong’s autonomy under ‘one country, two systems.’ Anti-bill protests escalated into pro-democracy demonstrations.

“Cockroach,” filmed during the height of the protests, captures the extraordinary intensity of an unprecedented era in Hong Kong’s history. Spanning the evolution of the protest movement, it captures street demonstrations, police suppression and violence, and key events, such as the multi-day siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Interviews with Hong Kongers feature activists, protestors, politicians, ordinary citizens, and policemen. Prominent legislators, lawyers and activists articulate the perils of intensifying assaults on freedoms and rule of law.

“Cockroach” is a poignant and dramatic visual record of the final moments of an independent, democratic Hong Kong. On June 30, 2020, China imposed the National Security Law in Hong Kong, effectively ending Hong Kong’s judicial and political independence and placing the city firmly under Beijing’s control.