Myanmar Girls
Country:
- Taiwan
Language:
- Mandarin
- English
- Burmese
Format:
- DCP
- Girlhood
- leaving/ migration
- conscription
- Myanmar
Synopsis
YouYou and Kat, two Burmese girls entering their final year of high school, are preparing for the overseas Chinese student exams that may take them from Yangon to Taiwan. Power cuts, shrill whistles, demanding exams, and teenage anxieties shape their everyday lives. Kat is driven and ambitious; YouYou is diligent, determined not to disappoint those around her. As Myanmar’s civil war quietly encroaches on the city through rumours of conscription and parental worry, the girls push themselves to maintain discipline. As the exams approach, they wonder whether studying abroad truly leads to freedom, or to another kind of uncertainty.
Director Statement
This short film follows two Burmese girls as they prepare for exams in their war-torn homeland, hoping to study in Taiwan. I am interested in the fantasies people project onto so-called “dream destinations”, and in how repeated pressures and limitations shape young girls’ understanding of the future. For them, stress does not always come directly from war, but from exams, parental expectations, and peer relationships. The girls’ contrasting personalities reveal different attitudes towards ambition and freedom. But interrupted by blackouts and unease, their everyday lives quietly reveal the inescapable presence of conflict.
Team
- Director
- Producer
- Production
Gallery
