14 APPLES
TAIWAN — MYANMAR 84 MIN, 2018
RUSSIAN PREMIERE
APRIL 7, 13:00
MOSCOW, CINEMA OCTOBER
ABOUT
Wang Shin-hong is suffering from insomnia. A fortune teller advises the Mandalay businessman, whose car and bulging wallet suggest that business is going pretty well, to spend 14 days in a monastery, living life as a monk and eating an apple a day. Such a thing is possible in Burma today. Wang Shin-hong arrives at the rural monastery, has his head shaved and dons a red robe, in which he instantly becomes an authority. During the welcome procession, the village women, their poverty clear from their clothing and the huts in the background, put more than they have in his alms bowl. During his fleeting role as their advisor, Wang Shin-hong soon learns of the villagers’ attempts to survive and make a living as legal or illegal migrants in China, Thailand or Malaysia. He also finds out how the other monks try to generate profit and additional income. 14 Apples is a disturbing documentary about the seductive power of a Buddhism whose ideals are not merely humanist in this era of globalisation.
DIRECTOR
MIDI Z
Midi Z was born in 1982. He was raised in Myanmar, Burma, but trained as an artist in Taiwan. His graduation short PALOMA BLANCA was screened in numerous film festivals. In 2009, he was selected as the leading screenwriter and leading director in the Taipei Golden Horse Film Academy organized by Hou Hsiao-hsien. Produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Midi Z made a short fillm, HUA-XING INCIDENT. In 2011, he made his first feature film RETURN TO BURMA, which was selected by Busan Int’l Film Festival and premiered in Europe in the prestigious Tiger Awards Competition section of the 2012 Int’l Film Festival of Rotterdam. THE PALACE ON THE SEA has led to another Tiger Award nomination in 2014, this time for short films. Midi Z's ICE POISON (2014) won Best Film in Edinburgh and represented Taiwan at the Foreign Language Oscars. JADE MINERS (2015), his first documentary, screened at the Taipei International film Festval and at the Int’l Film Festival of Rotterdam, followed by CITY OF JADE which was selected at the Berlinale Forum 2016. He was awarded Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker in 2016 during the Golden Horse Awards to acknowledge his excellence in both feature film and documentary, as well as how his achievement broadens the horizon of Taiwanese cinema.
OTHER FESTIVALS
- Berlinale Forum
SECTION
DOKer 2019 — Main Competition