An award-winning Hong Kong director critical of Beijing has spoken up about being sidelined in the local movie industry for years, saying it amounted to a suppression of civil liberties “laid bare.”

Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai, one of the directors behind “Ten Years,” an independent movie depicting a dystopian future for Hong Kong, said both investors and actors had steered clear of his productions ever since its release in 2015.

“Many people think that you are on the blacklist, which means you have lost the entire mainland Chinese market. The scary thing is that you never know what the criteria are. It’s nothing but self-censorship,” he told Apple Daily in an interview.

Chow said he did not know if actors and investors had been told to give him a wide berth. “Maybe it was out of self-induced fears. But the significance of this is that suppression is happening in Hong Kong … directly. ‘Ten Years’ is a perfect example of political suppression laid bare.”

The movie comprised five short films that painted a grim outlook for Hong Kong society in the coming decade as the growing influence of Beijing took a toll on all aspects of life in the southern Chinese city. Chow was the director behind “Self-Immolator,” the short film showing a desperate civil rights campaigner setting herself on fire in front of the British consulate.

Chinese media strongly criticized “Ten Years” for fear-mongering and said it was a “virus of the mind.” Movie critics said, however, that it spoke directly to fears among Hong Kong people that their freedoms were gradually eroding under Chinese rule.

In the Apple Daily interview, Chow, who won the Best Film Award at the 35th Hong Kong Film Awards for his involvement with “Ten Years,” joked that with the movie, he had subjected his career to “self-immolation.”

“[But] the more I feel I don’t need to cater to the Chinese market, the more freedom I feel I have.”

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