Midi Z’s semi-autobiographical Tiger competitor Return to Burma was shot unscripted and without official approval, Ben Walters writes
The title
Return to Burma refers to the central character of this Tiger competitor, who comes back to his native country after a dozen years as a guest worker in Taiwan; but it could also refer to its director, Midi Z, who spent a similar period in Taiwan before Burma’s first elections in half a century inspired him to turn his camera on his homeland, and particularly the challenges facing young people.
“I was born in 1982 and I think wanting to go abroad is a common feeling among younger people,” Z says, speaking in Mandarin through a translator. “They are more outward looking, they have a freer spirit. But many Burmese people today, old or young, want a better life. There are different ways of doing that – it could be money or it could be your way of thinking. When there is more freedom in Burma and it is more democratic, that will happen. And the situation is changing. It is changing as we speak.”
Rather than submit a script for official approval, Z opted for an improvisatory approach, using a three-person crew and basic equipment and shooting partly in public places such as markets. This was partly practical, bypassing the permit application process, but also an artistic choice. “I aspire to capture the pain and the happiness of the people I film and for the film to have a feel of documentary authenticity,” he says. “You would lose that with a script.”
Return to Burma includes a large number of songs, from bouncy radio pop promoting civic pride to impromptu sing-alongs among friends. “In school, you know there’s not much ahead of you in terms of jobs or a career,” Z explains, “but you can aspire to be a popular singer. So a lot of young people learn the guitar and play songs. People really like to sing love songs, sitting under a tree – that’s something I’ve observed many times. It’s also a way to release tension and frustration. In the film, people find this release through music and through religion – at the end you hear people reading sutras from Buddhist scriptures. Sutras and music are a way for people to express their pain, their hope and their expectations of life.”
A different kind of escape can be found through cinema. In
Return to Burma’s most playful scene, children recreate moments from Tarantino and Spielberg. “In Burma, children watch all sorts of pirated DVDs. We wanted to film this scene and there were two films they wanted to choose:
Pulp Fiction and
Saving Private Ryan. The scene provides a contrast – the violence in
Pulp Fiction is a different kind of violence to the violence we experience in Burma, so the audience can compare them in the back of their mind. Also, all young kids like guns – we used to play with toy AK47s. I think the reason is that when kids see a soldier, they have a gun and they’re conditioned to know that’s someone to be afraid of, so you know if you have a gun, somebody else is going to be afraid of you. It means you have power.”
More about Return to Burma here.