A Thousand Fires

Palestinian-British documentarian Saeed Taji Farouky takes a, largely, observational approach - with a welcome touch of something more abstract - as he embeds himself within a family in rural Myanmar for his latest film. Htwe Tin and his wife Thein Shwe are just one of many couples in the Magway region to swap reaping crops for drilling for oil in a bid to get by as they hope for a brighter future for their kids, the lush greenery of the countryside in sharp contrast to the thick black oil they bring to the surface with a motor pump that has seen better days.

Farouky relaxes into the gentle rhythms of everyday family life for the couple, as they joke with one another about work or play with the children, in between doing their best to extract barrels of the black stuff. We see the major role keeping faith has in the household, whether it's in terms of giving Buddha his due, believing that their son Zin Ko Aung can realise his dreams of football stardom or getting the latest scoop from various fortune tellers. Farouky has an eye for contrast and strong imagery from the slippery brown oil on dusty ground to black gouts of smoke rising up from a fire and the intricate make-up worn by children for a festival. The filmmaker is alive to the toil of the family but also their simple pleasures in a way that makes us feel as though we're sitting down for a natter with them, rather than peering in at them from a point of aloofness.

Although Zin Ko Aung's story feels like a bit of a diversion from the main thrust of the tale, and most certainly leaves you wanting to see more of that world, it does act as an interesting counterpoint to the rest of the family in terms of the possibility of an easier life. A little more on the wider political picture would have been welcome, especially as the family indicate that the governmental position on drilling has shifted in recent years from it being illegal to tolerance. Still, this is a warm portrait of life in this corner of Myanmar, elevated by its artistic cutaways including oily puddles or the muddy, bubbling geyser where locals go to 'feed the dragon' and a score from Fatima Dunn that knows when to shut up and let the visuals strike their own chord.