Thu Thu Shein

Yangon, 1998. A boy and his mother are waiting for the return of the father, a civil servant, to move out another town at Upper Burma. On the last evening the boy tries to understand the complexities of relationships.

Ten Years Myanmar, an omnibus film depicting a dystopian future 10 years later, tells five stories by five directors.

Oak Soe is a bit-part actor in the Myanmar film industry who dreams of landing a lead role. Struggling to get by with little money, he is at pains to accept that his girlfriend Honey, is sleeping with a rich older man for money. They both think they are in love and can accept each other for who they are, but the line between acting and reality is becoming increasingly blurred.

When the Paungdaw Oo monastic school was founded near Mandalay in 1993 the aim was to provide orphans and children from disadvantaged families with a decent education. Fifteen years later, the school has swelled to 7200 pupils and is a resounding success not least on account of its inspired, child-centred approach to teaching (known as CCA) as well as the integral role played by teachers, parents and income-generating vocational training programmes. In this lively portrait, the school's abbot and several of Paungdaw Oo's teachers – many of whom were once pupils there themselves – talk about the school's CCA concept, the astonishing benefits of encouraging children to think for themselves, and how these methods can be a model for schools across Myanmar.

Nobody knows what death is, as nobody has survived long enough to talk about it. But maybe death is not the end of life after all. 'When an old person dies, a baby is born', as one of the old ladies says without a hint of sorrow in '5 Beats Before Death', which follows the lives of those still alive at a home for elderly women in Burma. Here, they prepare with Buddhist tranquility and cheerful black humour for what the afterlife may bring. They speak openly and without fear about the life that will soon end, and about the journey that they are about to embark on. The only thing they are afraid of is that they might come back as ghosts. Therefore, it's important for the old ladies to say farewell to their loved ones and to face death on their own, without being attached to anything in this world. This is something that has to be done, but it isn't always easy. But they do have each other's good company, and the result is a cheerful, funny and wonderfully life-affirming film.

Out of work and forced to marry a man she dislikes, young San Kyi plans to run away with her best friend, but complications unfold.

In Yangon, factory worker San Kyi longs to visit the upcountry where her family is originally from, and she hopes to be accompanied by her co-worker, Theint Theint Oo.

Every year on a full moon night in November, thirty women gather at Shwe Phone Pwint Pagoda in the Pazundaung district of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon to take part in a competition known as Matho Thingan. Their task is to weave the finest robes for the temple’s Buddha images. All robes must be finished by dawn otherwise they are considered ‘stale’. Cheered on by large crowds and an orchestra of pulsating drums and high-pitched oboes, the teams of dedicated female competitors work the handlooms frenziedly back and forth in a feat that celebrates Buddha’s own foster mother, Gautami, who is said to have woven her son a robe in a single day.