The Road to Mandalay
Press Play to start
Online Availability
Additional Materials
Film description
Lianqing and Guo meet at the Burmese border which they both crossed illegally looking for a better life in Thailand. The reality of illegal immigrants' life is not the perfect setting for building a relationship, but the protagonists, busy looking for work and trying to get a residence permit, begin to grow close. Yet, their visions for the future are fundamentally different: the ambitious Lianqing wants to reach higher, while Guo's only goal is to earn some money and return home.
Midi Z returns to feature films after two documentaries and installations devoted to the Burmese working in jade mines. In his new film, he intertwines documentary with fiction in his own, characteristic way, creating an extremely powerful, authentic picture. He does not pity his protagonists – the frank, genuine record of their emotional and geographical journey is closed in long, perfectly framed shots, which find the hypnotic beauty in the least expected spaces. The melancholic soundtrack highlights their alienation from the place, at the same time creating an atmosphere of an unnamed suspense.
The leading roles are played by Midi Z's favorite actress, awarded at many festivals, Wu Ke-xi (both of them were the guests of the 7th edition of Five Flavours), and Ko Kai, a popular Taiwanese actor (known from romantic comedies, such as "Tiny Times"), who gladly sheds off his celebrity aura in the role of a factory worker. The independent Burmese filmmaker made "Road to Mandalay" on a budget much larger than usual, which accounts for the high production quality of the film, but doesn't make it any less fresh and direct. The picture is a strong, auteur voice, a proof of the artistic maturity of its maker.
The film was screened at the 10th edition of Five Flavours.
text:
Jagoda Murczyńska
Midi Z
Midi Z (born Chao Teh-in in 1982) is a Myanmar-born Taiwanese filmmaker and a distinctive voice in contemporary Asian cinema. He moved to Taiwan at the age of 16 to study art and design. In 2009, he was selected for the Taipei Golden Horse Film Academy, founded by Hou Hsiao-hsien. Combining documentary attentiveness with carefully constructed fiction, his films portray migrants and communities caught in cycles of poverty and exploitation. “Ice Poison” (2014) was Taiwan’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, while “The Road to Mandalay” (2016) received the FEDEORA Award in Venice. The latter screened at the 10th Five Flavours Asian Film Festival in 2016. “Nina Wu” (2019), a psychological thriller exploring abuse and power in the film industry, premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and was featured in the 13th edition of Five Flavours in 2019. Midi Z remains an important figure in transnational cinema, moving between independent festival filmmaking and more commercially oriented forms.
2011 Powrót do Birmy / Gui lai de ren/ Return to Burma
2012 Biedni ludzie / Poor Folk
2013 Letters from the South ("Burial Clothes")
2014 Biała śmierć / Bing du / Ice Poison
2015 Kopalnie jadeitu / Wa yu shi de ren / Jade Miners
2016 Miast jadeitu / Fei cui zhi cheng / City of Jade
2016 Droga do Mandalay / Zai jian wa cheng / The Road to Mandalay
2019 Nina Wu / Zhuo Ren Mi Mi
2024 The Unseen Sister / Qiao yan de xin shi
