Fruit Gathering

Bluesky

Even before considering the narrative content of Aung Phyoe’s sensitive drama, the Myanmar setting is a draw, as it offers a rarely seen insight into everyday life in the country. In the nation’s largest city of Yangon (formerly Rangoon), San Kyi (Nandar Myat Aung) slaves at a sewing machine in the pressurised environment of a textile factory. Her take-home pay is low and much of it goes to her overbearing mother (Thida Soe Khant) and ailing grandmother, with the former ruling San Kyi’s off-hours with barely less stringency than her supervisors rule her workday.

Sympathy is in short supply, so when new factory employee Theint (Nandar Myint Lwin) spontaneously sticks up for San Kyi, her glance of gratitude is palpable. Theint is not easily cowed by the supervisor and a tentative friendship is born that soon takes on a sapphic longing, most notably on the part of the introverted San Kyi. For her, Theint becomes not just an object of sexual desire but a potential conduit to the better life she dreams of back in her rural home village. Dream sequences, shot with a different palette by cinematography Thaiddhi, take us to the fruit gathering there and San Kyi’s fantasies hold sway. While generally naturalistic, there are occasional moments of strong symbolism, most notably focused on snails, although it’s arguable whether this gossamer delicate film requires such heavy flourishes.

Still waters run deep in the case of San Kyi, who has been carefully saving money with a view to turning her dreams into a reality. Theint, on the other hand, is much more flighty and unpredictable, borrowing cash with promises to pay it back that soon seem empty. Theint has a husband too, though in another nod to the wider state of affairs Myanmar, he is currently working in Malaysia in order to avoid the draft. Men are infrequently seen in Fruit Gathering, which is more interested in women’s status and struggle.

Phyoe, whose film won the Crystal Globe top prize at Karlovy Vary Film Festival, keeps the women’s relationship ambivalent, there’s longing but also manipulation involved. San Kyi is smitten with Theint but to what extent the other woman genuinely returns her feelings is a matter of debate. The women’s closeness holds a charge in a society where same-sex relationships are forbidden but platonic hand holding is considered normal practice and is underscored by thoughtful costuming from Akari Dirako, which shows how the women’s dress begins to mirror one another's.

San Kyi is well realised by Myat Aung, who lets a quiet determination bubble beneath the surface of her apparently naive fragility. Although romance is a key element, the action is driven by yearning and desires that stretch well beyond the physical and shown by Phyoe to be constantly subject to circumstance.

Source