Canadian Premiere
From The Maw Naing comes this bracing political drama — a story of women fighting desperately for their rights. Military coups have defined much of Myanmar’s recent history, and under the current dictatorship violence has driven many young rural citizens from their homes to cities, where their labour is ruthlessly exploited. Naing’s gripping film tells the story of female sweatshop employees who choose to stand up against workplace oppression, striking for two months’ back pay.
From the harshly lit shop floor where the women do their work to the dorm where they make their plans, Naing uses setting to heighten the drama. The glare of fluorescent lighting, the rattling fans, and the rumbling din of sewing machines underscore the harsh conditions of sweatshop labour, and the director plays up the women’s cramped, shadowy living quarters for contrast. This is a dark, unflinching film, but it’s anything but cynical: The violence and oppression these workers face is distressing, but its depiction is meant not to dampen hope but to spark outrage and action.
New Currents Award, Busan 2024
Community Partner
Myanmar/South Korea/Singapore/
France/Norway/Qatar
2024
In Burmese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
The Maw Naing, Oh Young Jeong
Screenwriter
Oh Young Jeong
Cinematography
Tin Win Naing
Editor
Nicolas Bancilhon
The Maw Naing
The Maw Naing is a poet, installation artist, and filmmaker born 1971 in Myanmar. His short film Again and Again (2005), based on one of his poems, won the Special Mention Prize at the Zebra Poetry IFF in Berlin, 2008, and his short Between the Pages (2010) has been in the permanent collection at the Fukuoka Art Museum in Japan since 2017. His debut feature film The Monk (2014) premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and screened 50 times at international film festivals. His second feature, Ma – Cry of Silence (2024), premiered at the Busan International Film Festival.
Filmography: The Monk (2014)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Lucid
Art student Mia is struggling with a make-or-break assignment, a self-portrait. It's only when grandma lets slip that her mom used to hypnotize her as a child to blank out the bad bits that she realizes the severity of the challenge...
The End of the Internet + Installation & Talk
Forget the cloud. "The net" is a far more accurate metaphor for the www. Filmmaker Dylan Reibling meets the hacktavists around the world fighting for the independent flow of information free from censorship and exploitation.
Two Pianos
Once promising concert pianist Mathias (François Civil) returns to his native Lyon after a long absence. He's here to pay homage to his mentor, Elena (Charlotte Rampling). But a chance encounter with an old flame sends him spiraling.
The Richest Woman in the World
Isabelle Huppert plays cosmetics CEO Marianne in this teasingly ambivalent satire inspired by the Bettancourt Affair, when L'Oreal heir Francoise Bettancourt scandalized France by frittering away her fortune on a notorious celebrity photographer.
