Midi Z

Bad Education

On the night of their high school graduation, three delinquents decide to exchange their darkest, most unspeakable secret.

Nina Wu

After years toiling in bit-parts, an actress finally gets her break with a leading role in a spy thriller. The part is challenging, not least because it calls for explicit sex scenes, and the director is often hard on her. But both the industry and the press think the results are sensationally good.

QUAN MA HE

In Quan Ma He village, deep in the mountains of Northern Myanmar, a young couple welcomes their newborn child. Should they follow the other villagers by travelling to southern China to make their fortune, or should they simply stay and inherit the family farm?

14 Apples

Wang Shin-hong is suffering from insomnia. A fortune teller advises the Mandalay businessman, whose car and bulging wallet suggest that business is going pretty well, to spend 14 days in a monastery, living life as a monk and eating an apple a day. Such a thing is possible in Burma today. Wang Shin-hong arrives at the rural monastery, has his head shaved and dons a red robe, in which he instantly becomes an authority. During the welcome procession, the village women, their poverty clear from their clothing and the huts in the background, put more than they have in his alms bowl. During his fleeting role as their advisor, Wang Shin-hong soon learns of the villagers’ attempts to survive and make a living as legal or illegal migrants in China, Thailand or Malaysia. He also finds out how the other monks try to generate profit and additional income.

City of Jade

Midi Z visits his oncle who works as a jade miner.

Ice Poison

A young farmer and his father are barely able to survive on their meagre corn harvest and so they make their way down from the mountains to the village to borrow money from their relatives working in jade mines or on opium plantations. But missing paperwork, deceit and corruption have left them impoverished too. Finally, the father pawns his cow for a moped so that his son can earn a living as a taxi driver. His first customer is Sanmei, who has returned to Myanmar to bury her grandfather. She decides not to go back to China and to get out of an arranged marriage in order to begin a new life with her son in her old country. When Sanmei accepts a job as a drug runner she persuades the young farmer to be her driver.

The Land is Our Navel

In a village on the Central Plains, six-year-old Mao Qing and her mother Hongmei live a peaceful life. A mysterious Ghost Child arrives in search of their own mother, unleashing a transcendent force that spreads throughout the village. Amidst the ever-changing wheat fields, Mao Qing discovers a hidden, complex truth. Together, Mao Qing and the Ghost Child embark on a surreal journey to find the latter's mother.

Return to Burma

After decades of military rule, Burma has finally held its first presidential election. Many Burmese living abroad believe that peace and prosperity will soon soon follow, including Wang Xing-Hong who is living as an immigrant laborer in Taiwan and saves his money so he can return home. When Xing-hong arrives, he feels like a stranger in a foreign land but is determined to stay and make his life in Burma.