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
Late Fame
Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.