Fruit Gathering
by Aung Phyoe
Myanmar / Czech Republic / France | 2026 | 97′ | Color
Festivals:
Karlovy Vary IFF (Crystal Globe Competition) Grand Prix Winner
About the film:
The debut feature by Aung Phyoe, director of three award-winning short films, is an intimate chamber piece set in present-day Myanmar (Burma) – a country torn by division and uncertainty. Within this fragile context, we follow two young women, factory workers San Kyi and Theint Theint Oo, as they grow closer during the monotonous days in a textile factory in an industrial zone of Yangon.
San Kyi, a rather reserved young woman, increasingly considers returning to her native village, but jobs are scarce, so she tries to stay. Her feelings gradually begin to focus on the more pragmatic and confident Theint. Their relationship unfolds in shades of silence, gestures, and unspoken desires – in a space where closeness and love between women remain socially unacceptable.
The film gently touches on how female desire and fragile emotional bonds survive in an environment that offers them no space – caught between exhaustion from work, the impossibility of planning for the future, and the pressure of the collective.
About the director:
Aung Phyoe is a writer, director, and film editor based in Yangon, Myanmar. He holds a Diploma in Editing from Whistling Woods International. His short film Cobalt Blue premiered in the Pardi di Domani section of the Locarno International Film Festival, while Evening Clouds premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival. Alongside his film work, he translates literature and writes short stories in Burmese.
Filmography:
2026: Fruit Gathering (feature fiction)
2022: Evening Clouds (short fiction film – Singapore International Film Festival – Southeast Asian Short Film Competition)
2019: Cobalt Blue (short fiction film – Locarno International Film Festival – Pardi di Domani, Singapore International Film Festival – Southeast Asian Short Film Competition)
2018: Seasonal Rain (short fiction film – Locarno International Film Festival – Open Doors Screenings)
Press Coverage:
– Aung Phyoe’s promising first feature builds an affecting drama of small gestures, silences and everyday sensory pleasures (Variety)
– Aung Phyoe’s fine-tuned feature debut is powered by an impressive central performance from Nandar Myat Aung (Screen)
– A delicate Burmese debut film about forbidden love (Hollywood Reporter)
– There’s a foreboding, dreamlike quality to Fruit Gathering (RogerEbert.com)
– Weaving together themes of class, gender, and sensual deprivation, the film marks a confident feature debut for director Aung Phyoe (The Wrap)
– A study of desire, labour and social repression in contemporary Myanmar (Cineuropa)
– A work of remarkable emotional precision — understated, unresolved, and difficult to shake off (FilmInk)
– Fruit Gathering’s most striking contribution to queer cinema is that while it certainly isn’t cautious or tentative about including familiar queer elements (ICSFilm)
– Men are infrequently seen in Fruit Gathering, which is more interested in women’s status and struggle (Eye for Film)
– The only way out is through (DMovies)
– An excellent movie that presents an intense romantic story (Asian Movie Pulse)
– Aller à rebours de ce qu’attend la société, droit dans les marges, peut également être un refuge (Le Polyester)
– ‘Fruit Gathering’ Director on Exploring ‘Conditional’ Female Connection and Bringing the First Myanmar Premiere to Karlovy Vary (Variety)
– “Love is never a binary thing, a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’” (Cineuropa)
– Interview with Aung Phyoe & Thu Thu Shein (Film Fest Report)
– Interview with Aung Phyoe (Purple Hour)