The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie movie event, will this year pay tribute to dissident filmmakers Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu.
The Myanmar director and actress have been living in hiding for more than three years, after their public opposition to the February 1, 2021 military coup put them in the crosshairs of the country’s ruling junta.
Oldenburg highlighted the couple and their plight, in the 2021 festival, screening Na Gyi’s What Happened to the Wolf?, which stars Paing Phyo Thu, in its world premiere. The story of a gay romance between two terminally ill women, played by Paing and Eaindra Kyaw Zin, the film is not overtly political but its LBGTQ+ storyline drew the ire of the military regime. What Happened to the Wolf? had been submitted to the festival after the coup but before the filmmakers went into hiding. The trailer for the film was a hit on Oldenburg’s Facebook page, drawing more than 1 million views. Eaindra won the festival’s Seymour Cassel Award for best actress but was unable to receive the prize in person, having been imprisoned in Myanmar for participating in protests.
Before the coup, Na and Thu were Myanmar cinema’s “it couple.” Na is one of the country’s most acclaimed directors. Paing, winner of the Myanmar Academy Award, is amongst its most celebrated screen stars.
After the military coup, they took to the streets in protest. A photo of Paing Phyo Thu holding up a three-finger salute — the symbol of defiance from The Hunger Games films — went viral. On April 3, the military government issued a warrant for their arrests, accusing the couple of “using their popularity” to encourage civil servants to participate in the protests.
Facing indefinite prison time and torture, the couple chose instead to go into hiding in an undisclosed location in a nearby country, where they remain. But they are determined to continue their opposition to the junta. “There’s no turning back,” said Paing in a statement. “We decided we’re going to do this, and we will fight to the end.” From hiding, the filmmakers co-founded The Artists Shelter to support Myanmar Artists in exile.
Oldenburg’s tribute to Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu will include What Happened to the Wolf? and 2019s Mi, their first feature film collaboration. An adaptation of a famous Myanmar novel by Ki Aye, Mi is set in the 1940s and stars Paing as a carefree young woman dying of tuberculosis. The film was a local critical and box office hit. Oldenburg will also screen three of Na’s short films starring Paing: Guilt, Our Turn, and My Lost Nation. All the screenings of the tribute will be free to audiences in Oldenburg, with donations taken to support The Artists Shelter.
Oldenburg on Tuesday also unveiled several of this year’s competition films, which will screen during the 2024 event between Sept. 11-14. Highlights include Quentin Dupieux’s meta-movie comedy The Second Act, which premiered in Cannes; the Locarno entry Telegraphic Letters from Portuegese auteur Edgar Pêra; and Vincent Grashaw’s Bang Bang, a Tribeca title, featuring Tim Blake Nelson as an ex-boxer obsessed with rectifying the sins of his past. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs star will be seen in the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, where he will reprise his role as Samuel Sterns in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.
Among this year’s Oldenburg world premieres are Flieg Steil, a German drama from directors Martina Schöne-Radunsk and Lana Cooper, and James, a noir comedy from Canadian filmmaker Max Train.
Hala Matar’s Elektra, starring the Oscar-nominated Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Abigail Cowen (Stranger Things) and Jack Farthing (Spencer), will have its German premiere at Oldenburg in competition. Nayla Al Khaja’s Three, a psychological drama set in the United Arab Emirates, will celebrate its European premiere at the festival.
Other Oldenburg 2024 competition titles include the family drama Baby Brother from British director Michael J. Long; Mitzi Peirone’s horror thriller Saint Clare, Saralisa Volm’s Am Ende der Wahrheit, a drama featuring German star Maria Furtwängler as a surgeon on the edge, and $$$, the debut feature from U.S. director Jake Remington which combines verité documentary footage with a guerilla shoot to capture the New York underground scene.
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