JAFF 2024 Announces Juries Awards: Yohanna, HappyEnd and Ma – Cry of Silence the big winners

Panos Kotzathanasis

NETPAC Award

NETPAC Award aims to read the diverse Asian perspectives from the first or second work of directors who hold the future of Asian cinema.

Arian Darmawan, Intan Paramaditha and Latika Padgaonkar gave the NETPAC Award to “Ma – Cry of Silence” by The Maw Naing

Indonesian Screen Award

This is a feature-length competitive program of the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival for established filmmakers and upcoming young talent who hold the future of Indonesian cinema. This section will have 5 awards; Best Film, Best Director, Best Storytelling, Best Cinematography, and Best Performance.

Anthony Chen, Liz Shackleton, and Shozo Ichiyama gave the Editing Award to “Queen of Witchcraft” while “Yohanna” received the rest of the five awards as follows: Cinematography (Odyssey Flores), Storytelling (Razka Robby Ertanto), Performance (Laura Basuki, Kirana Putri Grasela, Iqua Tahlequa), Director (Razka Robby Ertanto) and Film.

Blencong Award

This is an in-competition program for Asian short films that will be eligible to compete for Blencong Awards for the best Asian shorts.

Anggun Priambodo, Oh Jung-wan and Sheila Dara Aisha presented a special mention to “Anita, Lost in the News” by Behzad Nalbandi and the Blencong Award to “When the Wind Rises” by Hung Chen

GEBER Award

GEBER Award is given to the best Asian film from the first or second work of directors who hold the future of Asian cinema, chosen by the representatives of film communities around Indonesia. This award is a form of a statement by the Indonesian film community to show their perspectives regarding marginalized and/or controversial issues.

Kusen Dony Hermansyah, Ricas Cwu, Yedi Letedara and Sheila Dara Aisha gave the Geber Award to “MA – Cry of Silence”

Student Award

STUDENT AWARD is given to the best Asian shorts in the Light of Asia program. The winner is chosen by the representatives of film students in Yogyakarta.

Ananda Afta Firstiarko, Muhammad Akmal Ihsan, Muhammad Fawwaz Fauzarrahman, Muhammad Rafi Eka Putra and Tri Yuni Aulia gave the Student Award to “When the Wind Rises” by Hung Chen

https://asianmoviepulse.com/2024/12/jaff-2024-announces-juries-awards-yohanna-happyend-and-ma-cry-of-silence-the-big-winners/

Su Lay in MA – Cry of Silence

Burmese director The Maw Naing brings his second solo feature-length effort – after the Myanmarese-Czech co-production The Monk (2014), which premiered at Karlovy Vary – to Marrakech’s Competition strand for its MENA premiere. MA – Cry of Silence is a brief but emotionally charged exploration of the intersecting struggles of class conflict and human rights in the country, inspired by the nation’s women-led factory protests in 2012. With a screenplay by Oh Young Jeong, the film world-premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October, winning one of two ex-aequo New Currents Awards in the strand reserved for films by Asian directors.

In the wake of the February 2021 coup d’état in Myanmar, 18-year-old Burmese woman Mi-Thet (Su Lay) is a garment factory worker in Yangon trying to make ends meet under the oversight of a threatening supervisor. However, the mysterious and absent Chinese factory boss has not paid the women their wages for two months. Sharing an extremely dark, cramped living space with several other workers, the bold Nyein-Nyein (Kyawt Kay Khaing) decides to instigate a strike, which several of them gladly join, while others are not so willing to put their jobs on the line. Mi-Thet also forms a friendship with an older man called Maung (Nay Htoo Aung), who keeps the young woman aware of the country’s history and how it seems to be repeating itself with the violent military junta.

Notably, the film includes mobile-phone and other low-quality video footage of the rural areas in flames and in ruin, placing Mi-Thet’s plight well within the constraints of the regime’s brutal hand. Several of the main actresses playing factory employees are also, in fact, former garment factory workers. This further blurs the line between fact and fiction in a film that ultimately aims to dramatise a series of events that could very well have happened just as we see them.

For the group scenes, the filmmaker and cinematographer Tin Wing Naing draw on the visual semiotics and aesthetics of a history of protest films originating from South and Southeast Asia. The young women tie on red bandanas, while he shoots them close up and in tight rows as they place their fists up and chant in protest. Conversely, the oppressor is both tangible but abstract: the men in charge are obscured or their faces are hardly ever shown at all, making them a menace that, in many ways, can’t even be fully identified.

Larger geopolitical forces are also alluded to but are left up to the imagination over this film’s brief running time. When garment factories in Myanmar are owned from a distance by foreign businessmen, the country becomes a blank slate for the exploitative business desires of others. The final shots of MA – Cry of Silence don’t tint the situation through rose-coloured glasses, but The Maw Naing suggests that the fight must, and will, still go on.

MA – Cry of Silence was co-produced by Myanmar's One Point Zero, South Korea’s Plus Point One, Singapore’s Potocol, France’s Alpha Violet Production and Massala Production, and Norway's DUOfilm. Alpha Violet has the rights to its world sales.

https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/471149/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHMyMZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfpG4EkkSgM7RBgbxj5RK2KJJHXkFPmDBghg_xUcO82B976sql60seqPMQ_aem_UlX4NAYiiqf13Y_iBEWxug&sfnsn=mo

Bangkok Film Festival wraps with awards for world cinema wonders

|Nongluck Ajanapanya

Busan Competition Film ‘MA – Cry of Silence’ Picked Up by Alpha Violet

By Patrick Frater

 

 

“MA – Cry of Silence,” a topical drama film from Myanmar, which will debut in the Busan festival’s New Currents main competition, has been picked up by Franco-Japanese sales firm Alpha Violet.

With Myanmar’s civil war now in its third year, the film tracks Mi-Thet, a young Burmese woman employed in a garment factory in Yangon. For the past two months, wages have not been paid and a group of female workers, led by the young Nyein-Nyein, get organized to claim. Mi-Thet, whose family disappeared during previous uprisings is reluctant, but eventually joins the strike due to an emergency situation.

 

The film is the second feature to be directed by The Maw Naing who debuted in 2014 with “The Monk.” Maw Naing studied filmmaking at the Yangon Film School in 2005 and FAMU Prague in 2008. Living and working in Myanmar, he is also a poet and artist.

 

Structured as a Myanmar, Singapore, France, Norway, South Korea, Qatar co-production, the film is produced by Maw Naing (One Point Zero) and screenwriter Oh Young Jeong (Plus Point One). Co-producers include Jeremy Chua (of Singapore’s Potocol), Charlotte Guénin (Massala), Marie Fuglestein Lægreid, Ingrid Lill Høgtun and Linda Bolstad Strønen (DUO film) and Jean-Baptiste Bailly-Maitre (Alpha Violet Production).

 

Other credits go to cinematographer  Tin Win Maing; line producer:  Aung Min Soe and chief sound editor and sound design, Mathieu Farnarier.

The Busan International Film Festival disclosed its selections for the New Currents and Jiseok competition sections earlier this week. Its full lineup will be unveiled on Tuesday. The festival runs Oct. 2-11.

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/busan-film-ma-cry-of-silence-1236120625/

 

 

 

Busan Competition Film ‘MA – Cry of Silence’ Picked Up by Alpha Violet

Busan New Currents competition film ‘MA – Cry of Silence’ from Myanmar is picked up by Alpha Violet.

variety.com

The Maw Naing and Oh Young-Jeong talk about shooting a film against all odds, the casting, unusual visual choices, the editing and other topics

부산국제영화제 Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) Interview with The Maw Naing and Oh Young-jeong 

Check the article on Asian Movie Pulse

https://buff.ly/3YrEU2c

Panos Kotzathanasis

The Maw Naing and Oh Young-Jeong talk about shooting a film against all odds, the casting, unusual visual choices, the editing and other topics

The Maw Naing was born in 1971 in Myanmar and studied filmmaking at Yangon Film School and FAMU Prague. His debut feature film  The Monk (2014) has been screened at over 45 international film festivals including the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the NETPAC Award at the Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema. His filmography includes the shorts Again and Again (2008), Between the Pages (2010), and the feature Nargis: When Time Stopped Breathing (2010) which he co-directed.

Oh Young-Jeong is a film producer and screenwriter based in Korea, also a visual philosophy artist and writer. Her educational background is bachelor and master’s degree of Arts, and doctoral course of psychology. She is an alumnus of Locarno Open Doors 2018 and SEAFIC X Produire au Sud 2019.  Her professional work in the film field started at a film production One Point Zero, Myanmar. She founded the independent film production company Plus Point One in 2019 and is based in Korea. She wrote and produced her first feature film, “MA-Cry of Silence” by The Maw Naing.

On the occasion of “MA- Cry of Silence” screening at Busan International Film Festival, The Maw Naing and Oh Young-Jeong talk about shooting a film against all odds, the casting, some unusual visual choices, the editing and other topics.

How did the casting work for the film?

The Maw Naing: We casted everyone in 2019, they all agreed to it. However, after the coup, and during the demonstrations, we had one individual dying and one with a life sentence from the crew, and others joining the revolution force. Regarding the actual cast, most had no experience. The man who plays the supervisor is well known, and the strike leader and the girl with the affair have some experience on TV but not so much.

Oh Young-Jeong:  In particular, the actor who plays the main character Mi-thet was one of the strikers we met when we visited the actual strike site for the teaser shoot in 2019. She had a real environment and experience very similar to the main character in our script, and I felt like I met the main character, who I had imagined as a scriptwriter, in the real world. I highly recommended her to the director and took a role as the main character during the teaser shoot. She was also able to join the actual film shoot by waiting and preparing for a lot of time, including the coup.

You chose to have the supervisor, the villain of the story, not showing his face at all. Why?

The Maw Naing: When I made this film, I didn’t want the audience to be sure of who this man is. He is a very bad man, a monster but he is not a particular person, he is indicative of this attitude in Myanmar. The same with the black hands in the film, they are also symbols of those who control society, and the Chinese one could say.

Oh Young-Jeong: I also thought that although the Burmese people are aware that most of the society probably has an obvious presence in the forces that unreasonably control it, the entities themselves are not clearly understood. I believe that the forces that govern and oppress are spread far deeper and more widely throughout society than we realize, due to many decades of dictatorship. Perhaps that’s what the director has expressed.

How close to reality would you say the events depicted on the film regarding the factory workers are? They appear to work long hours, being underpaid if ever, sexually assaulted and so on.

The Maw Naing: We have a teaser that we shot in 2019, when a lot of strikes were going on and we were shooting in a real strike camp in front of the factory. So when we shot the actual film, we went to a compound two hours drive from the jungle, in a village. The compound was really big and in there, we recreated the setting, and if you see the teaser you will realize how similar the two are.

Oh Young-Jeong: While developing the script, I was able to see and hear many things by interviewing workers, civic groups, and various women living in dormitories and visiting the site. And the reality was heartbreaking because there were many cases more disastrous than those in the film. Irrational things happened often in a country where labor rights themselves were not guaranteed by law. There was limited space for film to contain all their real lives, but we wanted to talk about these issues in a way that only we could express in a cinematic way.

You are telling a story about the women and their strike. But how did you change it in order to incorporate what happened with the coup?

The Maw Naing: During the script writing process, we talked a lot with Oh Young-Jeong. This is a film about the women’s strike, but we don’t want it to be only about that. This is about the women’s drive but also about their trauma. People see these courageous women but in reality they are afraid. Because they could lose their jobs, and it is not easy to find another job afterwards. We wanted to put this kind of fear and trauma in the film. The military has been controlling the country for so long so we don’t know how to escape and this is another feeling I wanted included in the film. Young-Jeong has her own experience of this type of events, with the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement what happened in her hometown, and she knows that these things take time, maybe decades. And that is why in the film we did not want to make it certain if the workers won, and we didn’t change the script even after the coup.

Oh Young-Jeong: From the very beginning of writing the script, I couldn’t create this story without the social background, so their lives under decades of military dictatorship were already included. The reason they had to tremble in fear even to speak out for their basic rights was because of the trauma they had experienced over several generations. They already knew very well what kind of terrible things they had to be endure for when they stood up to power. That’s why the realistic situation of a coup and returning to dictatorship didn’t make much of a difference in the film’s setting.

In the film you talk about the cycle of history, and visually there are many concepts of the “wheel turning”, like actual wheels and fans turning. Was that on purpose, to show that people are all trapped in this cycle?

The Maw Naing: Yes, because even when we had a democratic government, we did not trust them all that much. The military junta kept control from behind the scenes by the 2008 constitution. And during the coup, there was a lot of footage of what was happening in the villages, as people were shooting on their phones and putting it on social media.

Oh Young-Jeong: We wanted to express the lives of the Burmese people, who have continued to live under military dictatorship for generations, the repeated tragedies, and the passage of their time in the concept of a cycle at the same time. The repetitive cycle gives us a sense of hopelessness that we can never escape, but we also hope that a new wind will blow in the meantime.

Can you give us some details about the cinematography of the film?

The Maw Naing: I have been working with DP Tin Win Naing for over 10 years and he knows what I like. I wanted to show the strike and demonstration but I did not want it to be certain, what is depicted. I wanted to use static cameras and long takes, and we argued a lot about it. But we agreed in the end and we chose different approaches for the two main locations, the factory and the dormitory, where the lighting is also different. I chose to have different types of visuals for the two because for the workers the dormitory is like a shelter but the factory is a place of violence.

I have a background in art and literature, so I did not want to make a film the “usual” way. I wanted to be a bit more far away from the film, presenting it like an installation.

The Maw Naing: The one with the attack on the strikers, because I have no experience in such scenes and I also don’t like to show this kind of violence. My DOP neither had much experience so it was a question of how we can handle this scene, it was a big challenge.

 How was the editing process? I am also curious about the duration of the film, which is somewhere between the feature and the mid-length.

The Maw Naing: This is the first time I worked with a French producer and a French editor. We received a grant from a region in France, so we had to choose an editor from there. Nicolas Bancilhon is experienced but he knows nothing about Myanmar. So, we had some arguments during the editing. Of course, I feel that some stories would have been better if we had a longer duration for the audience to understand the story. But we agreed that we let them more thinking space in the story through a minimal and poetic approach.

The New Currents Award is given to the two best feature films selected from the first or second feature of new Asian directors introduced in the New Currents section (a competitive section of BIFF for Asian films). A grand prize of USD 30,000 is awarded to each film. The jury consists of world-renowned film experts who will choose winners to discover and encourage the hidden jewels of Asian cinema.

The Land of Morning Calm 

Jury Comment   

The Land of Morning Calm demonstrates Park Ri-woong's impressive storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth. The film explores the personal struggles of its characters while shedding light on the hardships of a rural coastal community. Through precise, deliberate pacing, Park navigates themes of economic uncertainty, loss, xenophobia, and societal prejudice, creating a narrative that never falters. The ensemble cast delivers terrific performances, portraying layered characters with nuance, while Park brings clarity to their inner turmoil and the broader social issues, resulting in a powerful, resonant drama.

MA – Cry of Silence 

Jury Comment

MA – Cry of Silence is honored for its courageous portrayal of resistance to historical and ongoing political challenges under Myanmar's political junta. Poetic and contemplative, using precise language and a clear understanding of the economy of means, the film illustrates both individual and collective awakening of female factory workers in solidarity and resistance in the face of being confined to an oppressive system and brutal working conditions. The Maw Naing's film powerfully advocates for human rights and dignity under pressure in a repressive regime, serving as an urgent call to action.

https://www.biff.kr/eng/addon/10000001/page.asp?page_num=8396

Panos Kotzathanasis

The concept of experimentation in movies recently has become quite formulaic, with most films of the category featuring a combination of vignettes and narration, usually unrelated to each other. Thankfully, The Maw Naing‘s experimentation in “MA – Cry of Silence” is of a completely different style and actually works quite well.

MA- Cry of Silence is screening at Busan International Film Festival

The story revolves around Mi-Then, an 18-year-old woman who, like many of her coworkers, has come to the city from the rural areas of Myanmar, in order to work in the textile factory and avoid the military’s destruction of rural villages under the pretext of eliminating resistance forces. However, her life there is not exactly easy. The hours are long, their supervisor is harsh and occasionally handsy with the girls, while, as the movie begins, they have not been paid for two months. Furthermore, they all live in a dorm, 3-4 in each small room, where they have to pay for rent and food, with the danger of eviction being quite palpable considering their situation. Lastly, frequent blackouts and the constant sound of gunfire, conclude a life that borders on being a torture.

Within this setting, the rest of her colleagues decide to go on strike, but Mi-Thet hesitates to join them as something else is also taking place in her life.

The script of the film by Oh Young-Jeong, who also co-produced along the director, is based on their observation and research of a real women’s strike in a garment factory, and the impact of this in the realism of the film is quite evident. This, even when an atmosphere of disorientation which occasionally borders on the lyrical, additionally heightened by the almost ritualistic style of editing, is still quite prevalent in the movie. As such, it is easy to say that this combination is actually the one that carries the movie from beginning to end.

Furthermore, The Maw Naing connects the individual stories with the sociopolitical and historical context of Myanmar, adding even more depth to an already rich context. That this connection occasionally is achieved through sound for the most part (the gunshots in the background for example) is where the main source of experimentation of the film lies, although not exclusively. The way the characters act, occasionally in silence, the fact that the supervisor’s face is never presented, the unusual but also impressive framing of DP Tin Win Naing and the fact that violence is highlighted through its consequences but is not actually shown, cement an experimentation that, thankfully, is not in the movie for its own sake. Instead, the combination of context and audiovisual approach result in a film that, although unusual, tells its story clearly, in another of its traits.

Furthermore, the romantic element that is included in the story, cements the contextual richness here, adding a layer of entertainment. If one were to find a negative in the film, it would probably be that some of the dialogues could have been better, as they appear somewhat artificial and on-the-nose. This, however, is but a minor issue, and in no way does it harm the quality of the whole thing.

Not much more to say, “MA-Cry of Silence” is a film that is as unusual and original as it should be, and definitely one of the best films of the year.

https://asianmoviepulse.com/2024/10/film-review-ma-cry-of-silence-2024-by-maw-naing/

The Land Of Morning Calm, from Korean director Park Ri-woong, and MA Cry Of Silence, directed by Myanmar’s The Maw Naing, were presented with the New Currents Awards at the close of Busan International Film Festival (October 2-11).

The jury, headed by exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, praised The Land Of Morning Calm, set among the inhabitants of a rural coastal community, for navigating “themes of economic uncertainty, loss, xenophobia, and societal prejudice, creating a narrative that never falters”.

The Land Of Morning Calm also won the KB New Currents Audience Award and the Netpac Award. 

MA Cry of Silence, about a young Burmese woman who moves to the big city to work in a garment factory, was praised for “its courageous portrayal of resistance to historical and ongoing political challenges under Myanmar’s political junta”. The film was made as a co-production with Korea, Singapore, France, Norway and Qatar.

The Kim Jiseok Awards, for more established filmmakers, went to Indian filmmaker Rima Das’ Village Rockstars 2, a follow-up to her award-winning 2017 coming-of-age film Village Rockstars, and Taiwanese director Tom Lin Shu Yu’s Yen And Ai Lee, which also has multiple nominations at the upcoming Golden Horse Awards.

The Jiseok jury, including Christian Jeune, Prasanna Vithanage and Shin Suwon, described Village Rockstars 2 as “an honest poetic expression of everyday life, showing the harmony between nature and mankind through the struggles and gaze of a young girl.” Lin’s film was lauded as “an unfinishing and bold portrayal of a traumatic mother and daughter relationship with powerful, beautiful performances”.

The FIPRESCI Award went to Tale Of The Land, directed by Indonesia’s Loeloe Hendra. The first ever Documentary Audience Award was presented to Jo Seyoung’s K Number, which explores the experiences of Korean adoptees. 

The Final Semester, the story of a young novice worker, was a multiple winner taking the DGK Plus M Award, KBS Independent Film Award, Songwon Citizen Critics Award and the Actor of the Year for Yoo Lee Han’s performance. See below for full list of award winners.

More on this year’s Busan International Film Festival in our wrap story coming soon..

https://deadline.com/2024/10/busan-new-currents-jiseok-awards-land-of-morning-calm-ma-cry-of-silence-1236113229/

The Busan International Film Festival has revealed its award winners and confirmed earlier dates for 2025.

Park Ri-woong’s “The Land of Morning Calm” (Korea) and The Maw Naing’s “MA – Cry of Silence”(Myanmar/Korea/Singapore/France/Norway/Qatar) shared the New Currents Award.

Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars 2” (India/Singapore) and Tom Lin Shu-Yu’s “Yen and Ai-Lee” (Taiwan) jointly claimed the Kim Jiseok Award for more experienced filmmakers.

“The Land of Morning Calm” impressed the jury with its “storytelling skills and ability for subtle emotional depth,” exploring personal struggles within a rural coastal community. “MA – Cry of Silence” was recognized for its “courageous portrayal of resistance” to Myanmar’s political challenges. “The Land of Morning Calm” additionally secured the KB New Currents Audience Award. The film also won the NETPAC Award, which announced previously as part of the Busan Vision Awards.

The New Currents Award jury was led by dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof as president, with members including Korean director Lee Myung-Se, Chinese actor Zhou Dongyu, Indian actor Kani Kusruti, and Croatian International Film Festival Rotterdam director Vanja Kaludjercic.

In the Kim Jiseok Award category, “Village Rockstars 2” was praised as an “honest poetic expression of everyday life,” while “Yen and Ai-Lee” was cited for its “unfinishing and bold portrayal of a traumatic mother and daughter relationship.” The jury for this award consisted of Christian Jeune, director of the film department at Cannes Film Festival, Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage, and Korean director Shin Suwon.

The BIFF Mecenat Award for documentaries went to “Works and Days” by Park Minsoo and Ahn Kearnhyung (Korea), and “Another Home” by Frankie Sin (Taiwan/Hong Kong, China/France). The jury for this category included Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Japanese DD Center director Fujioka Asako, and Korean director Lee Soojung.

In the short film category, Song Jiseo’s “Yurim” (Korea) and Eléonore Mahmoudian and Matsui Hiroshi’s “A Garden in Winter” (Japan/France) received the Sonje Award. The Sonje Award jury comprised Korean director Lim Daehyung, American director Constance Tsang, and Japanese director Yamanaka Yoko.

The festival also honored Yoo Lee-ha as actor of the year – male for “The Final Semester” (Korea), and Park Seoyun as actor of the year – female for “Humming” (Korea). The jury for this category included Korean actors Kim Sunyoung and Ryu Junyeol.

Antonella Sudasassi Furniss’ “Memories of a Burning Body” (Costa Rica/Spain) won the Flash Forward Audience Award. Jo Seyoung’s “K-Number” (Korea) took home the Documentary Audience Award.

The 2025 edition of the festival, its 30th, will take place Sept. 17-26, instead of its usual October slot, while the adjacent Asian Contents & Film Market will run Sept. 20-23. The earlier dates are in order to avoid coinciding with the Chuseok mid-autumn harvest festival, which is a three-day national holiday in Korea and falls in October next year.

https://variety.com/2024/film/asia/busan-film-festival-2024-award-winners-1236175336/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF1sZVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHb2FUvoKXfOoO5unmTnLXV4yrWUxabTa67RGfMJ83e3Zu8Bc2zJExB6lbA_aem_qESgrqIMJR01YXS-NL_F-A