Ma-Cry of Silence
Spring Grants 2023 - Post-Production Stage
The Maw Naing / Feature Narrative / Myanmar, South Korea, France, Singapore, Norway, Qatar / 2024 / 73 min / Colour / Original Language: Burmese, Chinese / Interests: Drama
Synopsis
In 2022, Myanmar remains engulfed in civil war following the military coup of 1 February 2021. Mi-Thet, a young Burmese woman, is working in a garment factory in Yangon, far from her native village. Wages have not been paid for the past two months, and a group of workers are leading a strike. But soon, the strikers are attacked by the henchmen of the military regime, leaving Mi-Thet terrified by her past trauma. Inspired by real-life events, ‘Ma – Cry of Silence’ is a gripping portrait of personal and political struggle. Mi-Thet’s journey mirrors the collective experience of Myanmar’s people, where survival is an act of defiance.
As she navigates the oppressive forces that govern both her workplace and her country, the film captures the resilience of women who dare to challenge a brutal system, even at great personal risk. Director The Maw Naing crafts a stark, intimate drama that fuses naturalistic performances with archival footage, grounding Mi-Thet’s personal turmoil within the broader history of state violence. Shot under precarious conditions, the film’s raw cinematography and restrained storytelling amplify the suffocating tension of a society in turmoil. ‘Ma – Cry of Silence’ is not just a film—it is a cinematic act of resistance, bearing witness to those who continue to fight for dignity in a silenced nation.
Credits
- Director
- The Maw Naing
- Screenwriter
- Oh Young Jeong
- Producer
- The Maw Naing, Oh Young Jeong , Jeremy Chua, Charlotte Guénin, Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Jean-Baptiste Bailly-Maître, Linda Bolstad Strønen, Marie Fuglestein Lægreid
- Production Company
- One Point Zero, Massala, Plus Point One, Potocol, Duo Films, Alpha Violet Production
About the Director
The Maw Naing was born in 1971 in Myanmar. He is a poet, installation artist, and filmmaker. He studied filmmaking at the Yangon Film School in 2005 and at FAMU Film School in Prague in 2008. He was the first Myanmar filmmaker in almost 50 years to present a feature at an international festival when his debut film, ‘The Monk’ (2014), premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film won three prizes and was screened at 50 international festivals. One of his first short films, ‘Again and Again’ (2005), is based on one of his poems and won the Special Mention Prize at Zebra Poetry IFF in Berlin in 2008. His co-directed documentary ‘Nargis: When Time Stopped Breathing’ (2011) was screened at CPH:DOX and IDFA and won four awards. He is currently working on his third feature, ‘Aung Who Wanted to Be Aung and Then Wanted to Be a Nun’.