Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Yu explores censorship and national identity in this new film installation, commissioned by Phoenix and Videoclub in association with Osmosis Festival Taipei.

Filmed in Northern Malaysia, the film features interviews with local communities, documenting their interactions with – and reactions to – books and literature that have been banned by the Malaysian state.

Focusing on a pair of bookstores, where banned items are smuggled in, Chi-Yu investigates the underground reading habits of these communities and their demand for knowledge and information forbidden by the state.

Wu Chi-Yu is a leading Taiwanese artist filmmaker, whose work explores the varied connections between history, politics, the individual, and the collective in society. His practice revolves around the moving image, looking for contemporary narratives in lost memory through the reproduction of oral history and myths.

He has exhibited in the Taipei Biennial, Taipei, Taiwan (2016); 2nd China Central Academy of Fine Arts Future Exhibition, Beijing, China (2015); and Fest — New Directors/New Films Festival, Espinho, Portugal (2015)