Following on the success of the “10 Years” series which features Thailand and Hong Kong editions among others, comes the latest iteration which sees five Burmese filmmakers coming together to conceptualize on the future they envision for their country. The anthology series of five short films is a visual package of this combined thought space, packaged in stylistic arthouse omnibus which is “10 Years Myanmar”.
Ten Years Myanmar is screening at Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival
The first film is “A City of Bougainvillea” by Thaiddhi. A blossoming love between a young couple sees them enjoying sweet nothings atop the city heights. But there is an uncomfortable silence in the air- for the boy might not even be real. The movie that starts of the anthology is perhaps the most poignant one. A morose and dark take on identity and belonging, which is rife with symbolism and leaves a lot to interpretat.
“We Missed a Sunset” by Nay Wunn Ni talks about two young ladies living in a downtrodden construction site. They are joined by a man who promises to help them move to the city. On the following day, the girls take matters into their own hands and venture into the city, only to find a mysterious and alien place. And the worst thing is their male acquaintance is nowhere to be found. “We missed a sunset” jumps between the old and new, in an interesting genre-defying blur of drones and matrix-like transitions. However, the heart of the story gets muddled in the mixture, making for a pretty hard-to-follow short film that is not the most engaging.
“The Right One” by Myo Thar Khin is about a young filmmaker who had just been released from prison. The man enters the apartment of an old friend, and they recall better days and how the latter would send him cigarette box health warning messages, of which he would compile together to pass time. This intimate setting kicks of a venture down memory lane, where the filmmaker catches up with his history, while making sense of the future. This short film does quite well in capturing the disconnection from society that is often felt by ex-convicts and is a sobering look at human conditioning.
“Boarding House” by Aung Min features a strange young woman coming to terms with her sad life in a boarding house. After a Buddhist monk enters the building, the girl is overcome with a hopeful reverential zeal that culminates in an accusatory he says/she says that combines depravity and religion. Although it is imaginative, “Boarding House” is dragged down by poorly executed abstractness and could do with better lighting.
The film that concludes the anthology is “Act of Kissing” by Lamin Oo. A tongue-in-cheek “The Office” spawn that breaks the fourth wall like the hit US Television series. A man is intrigued by Myanmar's censorship laws of banning kissing onscreen to preserve tradition and goes against it by hiring actors to film a kissing scene. What follows is an amusing and mockumentary-esque cringe comedy that skirts with a fascinating comedic side not seen this part of the world. The laughs are few and the story is obtuse, but Lamin Oo's film is brave for pitting the man against the system with his honest cry for help: “creating art in this dull place is like a living hell”.
“Ten Years Myanmar” presents quite a refreshing set of ideas showing how Burmese filmmakers are on the cusp of a breakthrough for Burmese cinema. The five short films all have distinctly bold textures that are not only post-modern but all show great promise and potential- if only the directors could all band together to create a more well-rounded film, then we would have ourselves a cinematic treat faster than you can say Mohinga.
