Since I made my first feature film, Return to Burma, my life has become a lot more boring because suddenly, I feel that I’ve got so many stories to tell, and therefore during the past several years, I was either making a film or preparing for the next production.
In 2016, after the world premiere of my second documentary, City of Jade, I went straight into editing The Road to Mandalay, my latest feature to date. When it was completed in September 2016, I spent the rest of the year promoting the film. After that, I tried to keep myself away from people as much as possible.
In fact, apart from making films, I’ve been leading a rather boring life in the past years. I stay home as much as possible, reading and writing daily. Other than that I spend much time imagining the future or reminiscing about the past. Last year, I decided to slow down and to ponder over how I’m going to make films and what kind of films I would like to make.
In the beginning of 2017, I went back to Lashio, my hometown. For two months, apart from keeping my mother company and chatting to her, I didn’t do much else and I felt quite happy. Having thought thoroughly about cinema, I came to realise that it wasn’t that significant after all. Originally, I planned to become a monk in a temple in the mountains for a couple of weeks, where I could contemplate how to take the next step in my life. Nevertheless, it was such a coincidence that my friend Shin-hong was about to follow a fortune-teller’s advice to become a monk in a temple in Central Myanmar for fourteen days that I ended up going with him. Unfortunately, as I took a camera with me, I didn’t become a monk but a cameraman, filming Shin-hong’s life in the temple and the result is 14 Apples.
Midi Z showed City of Jade at the Forum in 2016. 14 Apples is his new film.
