nargis - when time stopped breathing
In May 2008 a cyclone called Nargis raged for hours in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwaddy Delta, killing 140,000 people. Seven days after the storm, several young Burmese filmmakers made their way – carefully, since filming was banned by the government – to villages that had been utterly devastated, and met people who had lost everything to the cyclone. They recorded scenes that touched them to the core, moving through a world that appeared more surreal than real, where life and death seemed to coexist. Their images reflect their own feelings as much as those of the people they met; these emotions have been woven into a film that conveys what it means when a natural disaster like Nargis changes forever the lives of so many.
Directed by: The Maw Naing, Pe Maung Same | Camera: Tin Win Naing, Thaiddhi, Pe Maung Same | Sound: Kyaw Myo Lwin | Edited by: Myo Min Khin, Stewart Young ASE | Production Manager Myanmar: Thu Thu Shein | Project Mentor: Ulrike Schaz | Produced by Lindsey Merrison Film in association with ZDF Das kleine Fernsehspiel | © Lindsey Merrison Film, 2009
«A courageous film with lyrical beauty that transcends the drama of politics, society and people.» Utpal Borpujari, FIPRESCI Award Jury, Mumbai International Film Festival 2012