In 2021, between submitting the film What Happened to the Wolf? and its premiere at Oldenburg Film Festival, Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu were forced into hiding.
The film was submitted to Oldenburg shortly after the military coup. A few short months later, accusations were made that Na Gyi and his partner, Paing Phyo Thu – as well as various other artists – were using their popularity to undermine the regime. The couple fled, while Eaindra Kyaw Zin, co-lead in What Happened to the Wolf? was arrested and incarcerated without due process, like many others. Understandably moved by the ongoing situation, Oldenberg’s response this year was to a present a small programme of the films Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu have made together, both before and since their exile. The intention is two-fold; to raise awareness about the plight of opponents to the regime in Myanmar and to raise money for Artists’ Shelter, the charity the pair have co-founded.
Encompassing three screenings across the festival, the tribute strand included two feature films Mi (2019) and the previously mentioned What Happened to the Wolf? (2021), which were both made prior to the coup. There was then a screening of short films that have been made from exile, that are expressly concerned with highlighting the human rights abuses that have been suffered by the people of Myanmar who dare to dissent: My Lost Nation (2022), Our Turn! (2023) and Guilt (2024). The screenings have been well-attended across the board. The festival director asked all attendees at the opening ceremony to raise three fingers in the salute of the resistance movement in Myanmar, so a photograph could be sent to the filmmakers who, for obvious reasons, could not be in attendance.
Given the significant difference in filmmaking style and subject matter between the pre- and post-2021 films, it makes some sense to discuss them separately. Both Mi and What Happened to the Wolf? are melodramas, though in very different modes. Mi is based on a classic 1950s novel of Myanmar by Kyi Aye and stars Paing Phyo Thu as the eponymous character. It’s monochrome, noirish, and overwrought – much like the source material by all accounts – and presents a portrait of carefree young woman whose spirit – and whose enjoyment in going out drinking with men – was at odds with the conservative society she lived in. The actress is enthralling in the lead. Intended to be elusive and mysterious to the men who fall about her, she plays it perfectly all the way to the characters’ bitter end.
She is again captivating in What Happened to the Wolf? in which she stars opposite Eaindra Kyaw Zin. They play two terminally ill women who meet in hospital and develop a deep – perhaps romantic – connection in their illness and their desire to pass away on their own terms. A contemporary story, it is lighter on the stylish shorthand of Mi, but maintains a similar pitch of heightened emotion, particularly in its final third where earlier humour gives way to earnestness. It remains a poignant exploration of facing the end, though.
Understandably, there is a significant shift after 2021 and the three films the pair have made are all direct calls to arms. My Lost Nation is a very brief portrait in which a member of the resistance visits his best friend in a nearby village. He tries to comfort her about the future, before she reveals that he is already dead, and comes to visit her each night, unaware. Our Turn! Is a more layered piece, depicting the lives of several residents of a small village who have, each in their own way, suffered at the hands of the junta – from a football player losing his leg, to a mother losing a child. They each struggle to adjust and to find a way to live beyond their grief.
The most recent film in the programme, Guilt, is the most directly political of the three – which is saying something – and intercuts between two stories. That of a man imprisoned in an interrogation centre, and the journey of his partner trying to flee to safety across the Thai border. It’s the most hard-hitting of the three, with the depictions of violence against the inmates imprisoned for their defiance and the arduous journey through the jungle are particularly stomach-churning.
The films all end with information about the situation; a video introduction sent by the filmmakers also acted as a call for support and for the spreading of the word. In its way, the Oldenburg festival has undertaken the cause with gusto and the films on show – particularly the shorts – highlight just why that is so desperately necessary.
