Hong Kong director Ann Hui on Tuesday decline to air her views about the politics of her home city, telling the media in Italy that her latest movie had the support of investment from mainland Chinese companies.

Hui, 73, waved away reporters' questions on Hong Kong at the Venice Film Festival, where she became the first Chinese female director to be honored with the event’s top accolade, the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award.

When asked to comment on the Hong Kong political situation, the veteran director said she would rather let her work convey her political stance.

“It’s better for me not to say too much about the situation itself, because this film is invested by Chinese companies and they have allowed us to shoot this movie with immense moral complexity, and it has passed censorship with very minor cuts,” Hui said of her new production, “Love After Love,” at a media conference in Venice.

Instead, she preferred to narrate a behind-the-scenes story about the movie, which finished shooting last year just as anti-extradition bill protests were breaking out in Hong Kong.

At that time, Hui and film editor Mary Stephen could hear the police’s firing of tear gas downstairs from their production studio and could even detect the smell. It was only with the help of Google Map that they were able to avoid the police-protester clashes on the streets every night on their way home, she said.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated post-production work, leaving the team to rely on the mobile app Zoom to hold meetings.

“It’s a kind of a moving example of how film people work regardless of crossfire and everything, and we’ve tried our best to make the film despite great difficulties,” Hui mused.

Speaking on stage at the award ceremony, Hui thanked the festival organizers for giving her encouragement during the trying times and added: “Maybe you don’t know, this award also gives Hong Kong people a great encouragement.”

She wanted to give the award to Hong Kong, she said, as it was the place where she grew up, had her education and built her life experience, and the place that provided opportunities for her self-actualization.

She said she would help more young moviemakers so they could be the next to receive a life achievement award.

Hui’s new film, “Love After Love,” is based on a short story written by Eileen Chang. It tells of tortuous love and moral depravity in Hong Kong’s high society before the second world war, through the eyes of a Shanghainese schoolgirl who seeks help from a wealthy aunt and gets sucked into the latter’s world of fancy parties and ambiguous relationships with rich, older men, culminating in her own romance with a troubled playboy.

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