Midi Z

Midi Z, born in Myanmar back in ’82, is kind of an underdog legend. He didn’t start out in film, actually—he went to Taiwan and trained as an artist first. Guess you could say the guy’s got a painter’s eye, which totally comes through in his movies. His graduation short, Paloma Blanca, seriously made waves—people everywhere took notice, and it set the stage for what came next. 2011 rolls around, and Midi drops his first feature, Return to Burma. Not some obscure indie either; it landed in the Rotterdam Tiger Competition and Busan’s New Currents. That’s no small feat. The film’s got this raw, gritty vibe, and you can feel the weight of real stories behind it, probably because Midi’s own background just bleeds through every frame. Fast forward a couple years: Ice Poison hits the scene in 2014. Berlinale premiere—yeah, the Berlin International Film Festival, not exactly a small gig. And then, boom, Best Film at Edinburgh. The guy basically took the festival circuit by storm. Ice Poison, in particular, is haunting and beautiful all at once, digging into the underbelly of Myanmar life, the struggles people face, and the choices that haunt them. What really sets Midi Z apart is how personal his stuff feels. He’s not just making movies; he’s putting pieces of his own life and culture under a microscope. His films are harsh, honest, and sometimes tough to watch, but they stick with you. Not everyone can pull that off.