TICKETSby Saeed Taji Farouky (2021, FR/CH/NL/PS, 90’)
In the Magway region of Myanmar, a country home to one of the oldest petroleum industries in the world, live husband and wife Thein Shwe and Htwe Tin. Running an unregulated oil field, they produce a barrel every few days. They wish above all else to see their youngest son succeed, to break the cycle of poverty. A kettle boils. Mud slicked hands work sputtering machines. The ambient sound of a football match hums from a nearby television. “These days passed quickly”, Htwe says.
A Thousand Fires is a portrait of a family in flux, and a story of intergenerational conflict and compromise. It is a film of transient moments; of hopes and aspirations; of faith in the forces of karma and luck; of a place, a community, and the rhythms of a day to day; of lingering memories and a turbulent past; and of life persisting, regardless.
This screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist in-person.
Saeed Taji FaroukySaeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian-Egyptian-British filmmaker who has been making work around themes of conflict, human rights, and colonialism since 2004. His 2021 documentary, A Thousand Fires premiered as the opening film of Locarno’s Critics’ Week where it won the Marco Zucchi Prize for most innovative documentary. Farouky regularly teaches and lectures on filmmaking at venues including University College London, National Film and Television School (UK), Scottish Documentary Institute (UK), Sensory Ethnography Lab (Harvard University, USA) and Maysles Documentary Centre (USA). He is the designer and lead tutor of a radical, free film school that supports people from backgrounds underrepresented in the industry, and co-founder of Safar, the UK’s only film festival dedicated entirely to Arab cinema.
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