Pe Maung Same

Nargis: When Time Stopped Breathing

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar's Ayeyarwaddy Delta, claiming 140,000 lives. Despite a filming ban, young Burmese filmmakers clandestinely visited devastated villages after the storm, capturing surreal scenes of loss and resilience. Their emotional footage reveals the profound impact of Nargis, depicting a world where life and death intertwine, altering countless lives forever. For security reasons, the filmmakers couldn't reveal their names and they used pseudonyms. But for the first time, they screened the film with their real names at the 2nd Wathann Film Festival in 2012.

No Laughing Matter

Through rediscovered tape recordings made in 1996, U Pe Thein - a renown political cartoonist-leads us on a journey about the history of politics and cartoons in Myanmar.

Acceptance

“Acceptance” is a story of resilience in the face of economic hardships. The tense relationship between an elderly woman and her daughter-in-law acts as a micro example of the financial difficulties of the working class in Myanmar and exposes a conflicted family where generations can no longer connect. Nyi Zaw Htwe masterfully links the micro with the macro in this social and familial drama.

A Million Threads

Every year on a full moon night in November, thirty women gather at Shwe Phone Pwint Pagoda in the Pazundaung district of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon to take part in a competition known as Matho Thingan. Their task is to weave the finest robes for the temple’s Buddha images. All robes must be finished by dawn otherwise they are considered ‘stale’. Cheered on by large crowds and an orchestra of pulsating drums and high-pitched oboes, the teams of dedicated female competitors work the handlooms frenziedly back and forth in a feat that celebrates Buddha’s own foster mother, Gautami, who is said to have woven her son a robe in a single day.