ဂျပန့် ရင်သွေး

Followed by a talk with Maung Okkar moderated by Lisabona Rahman.

Two young Burmese pilots, who also happen to be brothers, visit Japan hoping to fulfil their long-held dream of completing a nonstop flight from Tokyo to Rangoon (present day Yangon). Upon their arrival, the elder of the two falls in love with a Japanese woman named Emiko, casting a shadow over not only their flight plans but also the brothers’ relationship. Produced during the 1930s amid anti-colonial aspirations, the film reflects a moment when Burmese revolutionaries and artists sought alliances with global powers, including Imperial Japan, in resistance to British rule. Once widely popular across Japan and Southeast Asia, the film was later considered lost due to censorship and limited archival preservation in Myanmar. Rediscovered in the National Film Archive of Japan, Daughters of Japan underwent restoration between 2018 and 2020 and was re-premiered 85 years after its original release. (Sarnt Utamachote)

Maung Okkar is a film director and co-founder of Save Myanmar Film, an organisation dedicated to preserving Myanmar’s film heritage.

Lisabona Rahman is a film archivist and programmer based in Berlin.