Private Project

The Dark Cinema

Four filmmaker friends rent a once grand but long decommissioned cinema in the outskirts of a rural town for the traveling film festival that they are organizing.
The cinema is steeped in a dark and horrific history that they are not fully aware of.

They are joined by Riya, a foreign NGO worker from India, who has a unique sensitivity to paranormal occurrences and ghostly presences. In freakish out-of-season heavy downpours, they are holed up in the cinema as electricity and lines of communications are cut out. One of them accidentally smears with blood from his opened wound on a magical tablet that is laced with curses that he discovers. And paranormal activities born out of the curses from the past begin to terrorize the hapless gang.

Together, they have to muster their courage, resort to their practical knowledge, depending only on each other, and face the relentless evil of the cursed cinema. Or they will face unspeakable, horrific consequences that this unforgiving place lashes out at them.

  • Pyae Zaw Phyo
    Director
  • Pyae Zaw Phyo
    Writer
  • Wai Minn Maung
    Producer
  • Nay Toe
    Key Cast
    "Nyan Linn Aung"
  • Kyaw Kyaw Bo
    Key Cast
    "Ye Thi Ha"
  • Min Thway
    Key Cast
    "Kyaw Swar"
  • Riya Ray
    Key Cast
    "Riya"
  • Nan Su Oo
    Key Cast
    "Ya Ti"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    မဟူရာရုပ္ရွင္ရံု
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 45 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 27, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    160,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Myanmar
  • Country of Filming:
    Myanmar
  • Language:
    Other
  • Shooting Format:
    4k
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.33:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Pyae Zaw Phyo

Pyae Zaw Phyo
Filmmaker/ Director/ Writer

Contact

No. (957/B), Kant Kaw Street, 25 Ward, South Dagon Township, Yangon, Myanmar
Ph: +959 79 8464 305, + 959 420 125 847

E-mail: pzphyofilm@gmail.com
Official Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/DirectorPyaeZawPhyo/
====================================================
Professional Certificates

- Produire au Sud Script Developing and International Co-Production Workshop /
Bangkok / Thailand / 2015
Officially selected for the feature film script “Love for Life”

- Wesleyan University / USA / 2015
Certificate in “The Language of Hollywood; Storytelling, Sound and Color”

- Human Dignity Film Institute / Myanmar / 2014
Certificate in “Creative Documentary Filmmaking”

- Stark, School of Visual Art / Myanmar / 2013
Certificate in “Professional Film Editing”
====================================================
International Awards

- VACLAV HAVEL LIBRARY Award
Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2015, Yangon, Myanmar
Across/ Feature Length Documentary/ 90 min / Director

- 3rd Prize for The Best International Documentary
ASEAN Film Festival, 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam
Traveller/ Documentary/ 25 min/ Director

- Jury Mention Award
WeCare International Film Festival, 2016, New Delhi, India
Traveller/ Documentary/ 25 min/ Director

- Han Thar Waddy U Win Tin Award (The best national film Award)
Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2017, Yangon, Myanmar
Psycho Zero/ Feature Omnibus Film/ 85 Min / Co-Director

- Disability Justice Award
Superfest: International Disability Film Festival, 2017, San Francisco, USA
Traveller / Documentary / 25 Min / Director

- Best Debut Filmmaker Award
Cult Critic Movie Award, March, 2019, Kolkata, India
The Dark Cinema / Feature Horror Film / 101 Min / Writer, Director

- Best Horror/ Science Fiction/ Genre Film Award
Cult Critic Movie Award, March, 2019, Kolkata, India
The Dark Cinema / Feature Horror Film / 101 Min / Writer, Director

- Outstanding Achievement Award for Debut Filmmaker
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, March, 2019, Kolkata, India
The Dark Cinema / Feature Horror Film / 101 Min / Writer, Director

- Best Horror/ Science Fiction/ Genre Film Award
Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, March, 2019, Kolkata, India
The Dark Cinema / Feature Horror Film / 101 Min / Writer, Director
====================================================
Experience Sharing

- Invited as a Special Guest Speaker for the Filmmaking Experiences Sharing Workshop in
Madras Christian College (MCC),
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, 2015

-Regular Host for the Script Club in Myanmar Motion Picture Development Department,
Yangon, Myanmar, 2018, 2019
====================================================
International Film Festival Attending

- Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, Yangon, Myanmar,
2014/ 2015/ 2016/ 2017

- Human Rights Human Dignity International Travelling Film Festival, Chennai,
India, 2015

- Human Rights Human Dignity International Travelling Film Festival, Pondicherry,
India, 2015

- Kameleon International Film Festival, Pondicherry, India, 2015

- One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Prague,
Czech Republic, 2016

- SUPERFEST International Disability Film Festival, San Francisco, USA, 2017
====================================================
Professional Experiences

Feature Film

1. One Hundred Questions
Independent Feature Film / Drama / India / 2016
Associate Director / Leader of the script developing team

2. The Dark Cinema (မဟူရာရုပ္ရွင္ရံု / Ma Hu Yar Yote Shin Yone)
Feature Film / Horror / Myanmar / 2019
Director / Writer
International Awards;
- Cult Critic Movie Award, March, 2019, Kolkata, India
- Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, March, 2019 Kolkata, India

Official Selection;
- Panama Horror Film Festival, 2019, Panama City, Panama
====================================================
Documentary Film

1. Traveller
Documentary / 2014
Director / Editor

- Participated in The Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival,
Produced by the Human Dignity Film Institute 2014

International Awards;
- ASEAN Film Festival, 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam
- WeCare International Film Festival, 2016, New Delhi, India
- Superfest: International Disability Film Festival, 2017, San Francisco, USA

Official Selection;
- KKIFF, 2015, Malaysia
- Myanmar Film Festival, 2015, Los Angeles, USA
- The Lift-Off Sessions, 2019, Pinewood Studios, England

2. Across
Feature length Documentary / 2015
Director / Editor / Camera person

International Awards;

- VACLAV HAVEL LIBRARY Award, Human Rights Human Dignity
International Film Festival, 2015, Yangon, Myanmar

Official Selection;
- One World International Human Rights Film Festival, 2016, Czech Republic
- Southeast Asian Documentary Film Festival, 2016, Oxford, UK
====================================================
Short Film

1. Will You, Daddy?
Short Film / 2015
Producer / Director / Editor / Writer

Official Selection;
- Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival,
2015, Yangon, Myanmar
- KAMELEON International Film Festival, 2015, Pondicherry, India
- 10th CMS International Children’s Film Festival, 2018, Lucknow, India
- The Lift-Off Sessions, 2019, Pinewood Studios, England
- The Chaffey Review Film Festival, 2019, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, USA

2. FIDATI (Trust)
Short Film / 2014
Co-Director

Official Selection;
- Opening film at The Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2014,
Yangon, Myanmar

3. The Window
Short Film / 2017
Producer / Director / Editor / Writer

Official Selection;

- Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2017, Yangon, Myanmar
- The Lift-Off Sessions, 2018, Pinewood Studios, England
- WeCare International Film Festival, 2019, New Delhi, India

4. Plan (Psycho Zero)
Feature Omnibus Film / 2017
Director / Writer

International Awards;
- Han Thar Waddy U Win Tin (The Best National Film) Award, Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2017, Yangon, Myanmar

Official Selection;
- Cine Palium Fest , 2017, Puglia, Italy

5. The Telephone Number
Short Film (2017) / MRTV Channel
Director / Editor

Official Selection;
- Forever White Ribbon Film Festival, 2018, Yangon, Myanmar
- The Lift-Off Sessions, 2018, Pinewood Studios, England
====================================================
Post Production Supervisor

1. Buffalo Boy
Short Film / 2015
Post-production Supervisor

International Awards;
- Min Ko Naing Award, Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2015, Yangon, Myanmar

- Han Thar Waddy U Win Tin Award, Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, 2015, Yangon, Myanmar

- The Best Short Film Award, Forever White Ribbon Film Festival, 2018, Yangon, Myanmar

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Usually, horror films are set in houses, schools, hospitals, temples, deserted highways (and vehicles), forests, ships, etc.
But I have decided to set majority of this horror film in a cinema, a location that is not usually seen in most horror films.

I wondered how it is to feel like watching a horror film about a haunted cinema in the cinemas and ultimately decided to explore that idea. This is the beginning of Dark Cinema.
We luckily get an access to shoot in the grand, old, decommissioned cinema named Wazira situated in Downtown Colonial Architecture Core Area of Yangon(Rangoon) from the 1950’s era.

The film is set in the early 2010’s transitional period, Myanmar is experiencing unprecedented burst in creativity and youthful energies. Many youths, taking advantage of the influx of foreign aids, engaged in many entrepreneurial activities. I was involved with a local film festival called Human Rights Human Dignity Int’l Film Festival and that’s how I drew the idea of setting a horror film in a cinema for almost its entirety as well as in the context of a film festival.

Rather than making this into a standard ‘haunted place’ type, I would like to infuse a cultural identity of our own. Therefore, I come up with the idea of ‘burying the cursed tablets’ concept that is very uniquely Burmese, a black magic practice involving placing cursed tablets in the strategic locations of a place that one want to bring misfortunes upon. Also I want the way the hauntings occur to be specifically “cinema”, such as weird and haunting images on film strips and screen. And the real cinema location helps greatly.

Since Myanmar has a large population of Hindi and Tamil speaking Indian community, and engages with the neighboring country India in dynamic cultural exchange activities, I have included in the cast Tamil speaking Burmese-Indian as well as an actress from India in order to broaden the film’s appeal.

During the one month of production period, after working day and night in an old cinema without ventilation or air-con systems, we are glad that we have come up with a horror film that is set in a real grand old cinema of a bygone era, a fitting tribute to the place of dark and light and shadow that we all love: Dark Cinema.