Serving
as a Buddhist monk should be a calling rather than a mere job. However,
employment prospects in Burma are so bleak, many take up robes for subsistence
reasons. In Zawana’s case, he was adopted into the monastic life he seems so
ill-suited for. However, his abbot’s illness will bring the novice to a
crossroads in The Maw Naing’s The Monk (trailer here), which screens
during the 2015 Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Zawana
enjoys exchanging flirtatious love notes with the cute village girl Marlar and
listening to the rebellious monk Yewata’s mp3 player. Still, he feels a tie of
loyalty to Abbot U Dahma, who found him starving on a park bench when just a
young child. When Yewata decides to seek a less strict monastery in Yangon
(a.k.a. Rangoon), Zawana nearly leaves with him. He somewhat regrets his lack
of daring when Marlar also ventures to the big city, ostensibly to pursue her
studies. Unfortunately, Zawana will soon follow them when the Abbot’s cancer
demands treatment in a bigger hospital.
As
is often the case, the change of environment helps Zawana put things in
perspective, but the bustling capitol does alter the film’s quiet, defiantly
naturalistic aesthetic. Indeed, it is easy to see how the director’s work as a
poet and a documentarian influenced his stylistic approach. Viewers also get a
sense of how the monks and novices do or don’t live in balance with nature and
their more profane neighbors.
Many
will need to acclimate themselves to The
Monk’s contemplative pace, but there is an easily discernable narrative to
follow, involving very real stakes. It truly transports viewers to the distant
Burmese province, lushly lensed by cinematographer Vit Janecek, but it is
considerably more character driven than a travelogue or docu-essay. Novice
Zawana is a classically conflicted figure, impressively brought to life by Kyaw
Nyi Thu’s tremendous range and depth. Likewise, Han Newe Nyein shows uncommon
presence and subtlety as Marlar, while Thein Swe Myint plays the Abbot with
fitting gravitas.
It
is a shame the modern-era Burmese film industry is still in its intimacy,
because the entire ensemble shows a natural talent for screen acting. Some
reports bill The Monk as the first
independent feature narrative produced inside Burma (as most citizens call it),
but similar claims were made for the Burmese-raised, Taiwan-based Midi Z’s Return to Burma. In truth, it seems like
an exaggeration in both cases, since Ohn Maung’s cautionary 1920 silent Love and Liquor would clearly predate
them both.
