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
Amrum
Twelve-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck) sets himself a mission to secure bread and honey for his mother to snap her out of her depression. It is 1945. The war is all but lost, and such luxuries are not easy to find on the remote island of Amrum...
Holy Days
After his mom passes, Brian (Elijah Tamati) is comforted by Sisters Agnes, Luke and Mary Clare (Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver, respectively). The quirky quartet hit the road to save their convent from being sold to a property developer.
Blue Heron
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.