Ta'ang
Hong Kong/France, 2017, DCP, color, 148 min.
Burmese & Mandarin with English subtitles.
DCP source: Asian Shadows International
With Ta’ang, Wang offers invaluable and deeply moving cinematic testimony to the terrible plight of refugees victimized by the intractable conflicts that enflame so much of today’s world yet rarely receive the attention or solutions they so urgently demand. Ta’ang is named for the Burmese ethnic minorities driven from Myanmar by the still-raging war between the Burmese Army and a strong insurgent movement that includes troops of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Wang’s haunting film inhabits the fragile camps and shelters of the refugees squatting in the border nether-zone, fleeing from the imminent threat of violence embodied in the quickening sound of bombs that recurs throughout the film’s second half. At the heart of Ta’ang are the whispering groups that huddle quietly around the firesides at night, telling stories, sharing cold comforts and creating a vital yet fleeting community trapped in an anxious waiting, bravely resolute despite the imminent threat of extinction.