In Exile

While living under Myanmar’s 20-year military dictatorship, director and cameraman Tin Win Naing could only film in secret and was unable to share his work publicly. "What they feared most were cameras," he states, a stance that greatly restricted members of the media and filmmaking communities (who risked 10-year prison sentences under the Electronic Law Act). In 2007, Naing filmed the Saffron Revolution, a protest movement led by monks, and in 2008, he captured the aftereffects of Cyclone Nargis. A year later, authorities began to arrest his associates and he started to worry about the fate of his family if he were to end up in prison, so Naing goes into exile in Thailand. At first, it’s a life of poverty and loneliness, but then he gets a job as a bike courier and meets some Myanmar migrant workers (he estimates there are two-to-three million in Thailand, most illegally). Naing decides to document the lives of some (which allows him to continue his own filmmaking project), including Kyaw Moe Win, a child corn picker, and Ko Zaw and Ma Cho, a couple who work on a lime and papaya plantation. Naing learns that managers pay less than they promise and that malaria is a constant threat. When two workers are caught stealing cow dung to sell, they are shot (one survives, and is then set on fire). Meanwhile, Naing’s father falls ill, which only increases his desire to go home. In 2010, Myanmar finally releases opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi from a 17-year house arrest and President Sein welcomes back refugees and political exiles, clearing the way for Naing to return. While there is a happy ending for Naing, his film makes it clear that he was one of the lucky ones. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)