THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

Lianqing (Wu Ke-xi) has herself smuggled across the border into Thailand in the back of a truck. Her destination is Bangkok, work, papers – and eventually Taiwan. On the way she meets Guo (Kai Ko), who comes from the same region of Myanmar and gives her his number. In Bangkok she works without papers in a kitchen, he in a textile factory; he wants to go back home and build something there, she wants to go further, whatever the cost. The forged papers cost more than she earns. In “The Road to Mandalay” (Taiwan/Myanmar 2016), Midi Z tells of two people who love each other and want different things.

What begins as a quiet love story becomes an image of a life without rights, in which every step costs money and hope is a risk. Midi Z, born in Myanmar and trained in Taiwan, tells a story close to his own background. The film premiered in 2016 in the Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Fedeora Award for best film; it later screened in Toronto. “The Road to Mandalay” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2020 in the Berlinale World Cinema Fund section.

Shown at the 2020 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2020 · Film Archive