Ma Yan Chan - Waves of Transition

Projects MA FILM STUDIES

Jonas Scheu – Ma Yan Chan - Waves of Transition

Since generations, the dockers and their families live and work at the Ayeyarwady riverbank in Mandalay, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. In a time of great transition, their lifestyle is subdued to lasting transformations. Against their will, the authorities try to dislocate them into newly built concrete buildings.

Diploma project (2016) by Jonas Scheu

Documentary / 29 mn

Synopsis

Since generations, the dockers and their families live and work at the Ayeyarwady riverbank in Mandalay, the ancient royal capital of Myanmar. In a time of great transition, their lifestyle is subdued to lasting transformations. Against their will, the authorities try to dislocate them into newly built concrete buildings.

Comment

On a boat, the silence is disturbed by morning noises and we can gradually guess, between the waves, a transition, a place where people live as best they can with solidarity, resistance and dignity, distrusting the promises of a better future. The transformation of a society is too often done on the backs of the underprivileged, their vital space being threatened for the benefit of others. With an extraordinarily fine eye, Jonas Scheu allows us to discover a historical moment in Burma. His aesthetic choices, in the service of a human perspective, support the protagonists in pale, luminous and transparent images. 

Ulrike Koch / Director

Festivals

http://www.swissfilms.ch/en/film_search/filmdetails/-/id_film/2146991947

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