This potent drama about two migrants who meet as they flee the civil war in Burma for a new life in Thailand hits many of the expected beats of stories about the stateless displaced. Even so, the stylistically bold approach that director Midi Z brings to the struggle of Lianqing and Guo, the boy who loves her, sets this apart. A combination of tender details – the way Guo carefully picks the fibres from his girlfriend’s skin after a gruelling shift at the factory – and a strikingly surreal approach to a scene in which Lianqing prostitutes herself for the first time makes this unflinching picture a notable addition to the ever-swelling list of films that deal with migration.
