Nothing is more sacred than one’s social status and reputation in filmmaker Hsin-Yao Huang’s The Great Buddah+, a unique and darkly comedic study of present-day Taiwan and the lower-class inhabitants that are subservient to the elite.

The middle-aged and meek Pickle has been a low-level security guard for the esteemed Chairman Kevin’s factory for a decade, yet the only upward mobility he seeks is during the nightly visits from his nomadic buddy Belly Button and his salacious magazines. But when the pushy Belly Button convinces Pickle to steal Chairman Kevin’s dash cam footage to listen in on the boss’s various affairs, their new form of nightly entertainment becomes not only titillating, but potentially deadly.

Employing bold, meta-drenched narration from the director himself, The Great Buddah+ lampoons the hypocritical, and often hysterical, social norms and practices of Taiwan’s upper class while finding compassion for the citizens so often overlooked.

Winner: Grand Prize; Taipei