Synopsis
In February 2021, Myanmar wakes up to the sounds of a military coup. The hopes of an entire generation are extinguished. Protests are held, but the dictatorship is too powerful: arrests, imprisonments and threats of execution ensue. The capital becomes a large open-air prison, but a few anonymous voices still have the strength to cry out.
A word from Tënk
Losing Ground's anonymous collective of filmmakers, composed of young Burmese from Yangon (the country's economic capital), revisits the turning point in their lives when in 2021, the military junta seized power in the country, stealing the freedom of youth in the process. In a delicate voiceover, the sensitive address to Yangon is struck by lightning: protests, arrests, incarcerations, torture, threats of execution… the dictatorship proves to be stronger. The city gradually becomes a huge open-air prison. Lonely artists in their apartments try to create in front of their open windows. Because what the dictatorship has succeeded in doing is isolating dissidents to better break the collective. While the creators of this film depict in images what it means to lose ground, they nevertheless manage to find hope in creative gestures. There still remains the power for each individual to create, to envision the future, to imagine oneself as a bird and to envision being free to scream the cry of an uprising yet to come.
Aurélien Marsais
Programmer, producer
