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Résumé de l'épisode
In this episode, Brian speaks with director Aung Phyoe and cinematographer and producer Thaiddhi about Fruit Gathering, Aung’s feature debut and the winner of the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Set among textile workers in industrial Yangon, the film follows two young women searching for intimacy and escape amid economic uncertainty and social repression. Aung discusses his desire to tell a universal love story about someone who was never properly loved, and the difficulty of loving another person when you have never learned how. The conversation also explores the film’s evolution from the short Evening Clouds, its nonprofessional cast, the use of silence and a confined 4:3 frame, the meaning behind its title and spirit ceremony, and the realities of making independent cinema under Myanmar’s censorship system. Thaiddhi reflects on his long creative partnership with Aung and their shared ambition to help new voices from Myanmar become part of world cinema.…
In this episode, Brian speaks with director Aung Phyoe and cinematographer and producer Thaiddhi about Fruit Gathering, Aung’s feature debut and the winner of the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Set among textile workers in industrial Yangon, the film follows two young women searching for intimacy and escape amid economic uncertainty and social repression. Aung discusses his desire to tell a universal love story about someone who was never properly loved, and the difficulty of loving another person when you have never learned how. The conversation also explores the film’s evolution from the short Evening Clouds, its nonprofessional cast, the use of silence and a confined 4:3 frame, the meaning behind its title and spirit ceremony, and the realities of making independent cinema under Myanmar’s censorship system. Thaiddhi reflects on his long creative partnership with Aung and their shared ambition to help new voices from Myanmar become part of world cinema.…
Épisodes
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Director Aung Phyoe & Producer Thaiddhi - Fruit Gathering
ÉcoutéIn this episode, Brian speaks with director Aung Phyoe and cinematographer and producer Thaiddhi about Fruit Gathering, Aung’s feature debut and the winner of the Grand Prix Crystal Globe at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Set among textile workers in industrial Yangon, the film follows two young women searching for intimacy and escape amid economic uncertainty and social repression. Aung discusses his desire to tell a universal love story about someone who was never properly loved, and the difficulty of loving another person when you have never learned how. The conversation also explores the film’s evolution from the short Evening Clouds, its nonprofessional cast, the use of silence and a confined 4:3 frame, the meaning behind its title and spirit ceremony, and the realities of making independent cinema under Myanmar’s censorship system. Thaiddhi reflects on his long creative partnership with Aung and their shared ambition to help new voices from Myanmar become part of world cinema.…
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Karim Kassem - Pipes
ÉcoutéIn this episode of Stream Close Up, Brian speaks with Lebanese filmmaker Karim Kassem about his latest feature, Pipes, which premiered in the Crystal Globe Competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Set in a remote Lebanese village, Pipes follows Hassan, a solitary farmer whose routine is disrupted when workers arrive in search of a buried water pipe. What begins as a practical task gradually becomes a quiet, humorous and deeply human reflection on isolation, community, migration and the uncertain future of rural life. Karim discusses the unusual path that led him to filmmaking, including his years living in New York, his early work in photography and music videos, and the influence of growing up with a father who worked as a news cameraman. He also reflects on the experiences that shaped his earlier films, from temporarily losing his sight to returning to Beirut just before the devastating port explosion. The conversation explores Karim’s preference for working with nonprofessional…
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Šimon Holý on Chica Checa, Karlovy Vary, Drag, Family, and Finding Hope
ÉcoutéIn this episode of Stream Close Up, we continue our coverage of the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival with Czech writer and director Šimon Holý. Šimon joins us to discuss his new film Chica Checa, which had its world premiere in the festival’s main competition. The film follows a woman working in a small-town post office whose dying mother has one final wish: to see a beloved Czech pop icon perform. To make that happen, she calls her son home from France, only to discover that the life he has built for himself is very different from the one she imagined. What begins as a mission to fulfill a grandmother’s last wish becomes something warmer and more surprising: a mother and son story about rediscovery, drag performance, small-town attitudes, and the possibility of starting again later in life. Šimon talks about the dream that sparked the idea, the personal connections behind the story, and why he sees the film as both humanistic and quietly political in the current Czech context. We also discuss…
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Jan-Eric Mack on "A Happy Family", Working Poor Switzerland and the Crystal Globe Competition
ÉcoutéSwiss director Jan-Erik Mack joins Stream Close Up to discuss his new feature film A Happy Family, which premieres at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival as part of the Crystal Globe competition. The film follows Niki, a single mother working two jobs while trying to keep her family afloat. After an accident brings her into conflict with the authorities, her life begins to spiral as she fights to remain close to her children. Mack describes the film as a story about Switzerland’s working poor, a reality that became more visible during the pandemic when food queues appeared in a country often associated with wealth and stability. In this conversation, Mack reflects on his path from graphic design to filmmaking, his time at the University of the Arts in Zurich. We also discuss his acclaimed short film Facing Mecca, which won numerous awards and was shortlisted for an Oscar. Mack explains how that success opened the door to television work, including his first series as a co-director and later work on…
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Mads Mengel - The Guest - “It has to have all of it, and then none of it. It has to be one big pile of grey.”
ÉcoutéIn this episode, Brian speaks with Danish filmmaker Mads Mengel about his feature debut The Guest, a tightly controlled family drama built around a deceptively simple event, a naming ceremony for a young couple’s new son. What begins as a celebration soon becomes something much more fragile when Carl’s estranged mother arrives unexpectedly, forcing the family to confront old pain, broken trust and the possibility of reconciliation. Mads traces the long road to the film, from his childhood discovery that movies were something people actually made, through years of rejection before entering the Danish Film School. He reflects on the privilege of working in a country with strong public support for film, and how his own experience of becoming a father shaped the final version of the story. The conversation also digs into the film’s remarkable cast. Mads talks about writing the role of Carl with Simon Bennebjerg in mind, discovering Josephine Park through his television work, and building a sibling dynamic that…
