A young factory worker becomes infatuated with a new hire, but can never be sure if their friendship is genuine or essentially transactional in Aung Phyoe’s sensitive drama, Fruit Gathering (သစ်သီးခူး). San Kyi’s (Nandar Myat Aung) life is in many ways defined by risk aversion. While the consequences of speaking her feelings may be severe in a culture in which such relationships are not fully accepted, she is also hemmed in by financial precarity and the fear of losing her job while finding work in Yangon proves increasingly difficult with an influx of those of fleeing violence and destruction in the countryside seeking employment in the city.
This might be one reason she continues to idolise her rural childhood as symbolised by the idea of fruit picking while one of many migrating to the city in search of work in the wake of her father’s abandonment. San Kyi’s mother has already sold their farm to fund her business as a labour broker helping workers find positions abroad and now wants to sell their family’s home much to the grandmother’s disappointment. Still living with her mother and grandmother, San Kyi also sees her job as a seamstress in a textile factory as a path to freedom and independence even if her mother looks down on her occupation and she’s relentlessly oppressed and exploited at work.
In fact, she first meets Theint (Nandar Myint Lwin) while being berated by the forewoman who accuses her of having taken an unauthorised bathroom break. Theint lies and says she saw her talking to her supervisor, signalling both a rebellious streak and also a casual disregard for her employment prospects which stand in stark contrast to San Kyi’s caution. San Kyi refuses to sign the other women’s petition for better working conditions out of fear of losing her job, setting her at odds with her colleagues in effectively siding with management and sabotaging their chances of gaining fair treatment. While her colleague insists they should fight for their rights, San Kyi would rather stay quiet.
Her caution is reflected in her unspoken longing for Theint, though the extent to which Theint may return these feelings is never quite clear. She appears to exploit San Kyi’s feelings for her in asking to borrow a large sum of money she says is for her mother in the country but perhaps not actually planning to pay her back. Theint abruptly drops out of contact, only to explain that she’s married a man and has to follow him to the rubber plantation where he works. When Theint’s husband finds work abroad, it provides a temporary haven of togetherness and a new sense of possibility for San Kyi who begins to dream that the two of them might be able to build new lives together in another country as migrant workers.
Theint, however, repeatedly tells her to stop dreaming and be more realistic. She does not appear to believe in the kind of better future that San Kyi clings to and all her decisions are motivated by financial survival. Theint takes advantage of her connections with San Kyi’s mother and the taxi driver she wants her daughter to marry leading to a hilarious misunderstanding as her mother accuses San Kyi of being “jealous” of Theint, suddenly staking a claim on the taxi driver whose currency has risen now another woman has shown an interest little knowing that the reverse is true. Even her mother’s attempts to marry San Kyi off have a transactional quality in being motivated by her own desire for financial gain in no longer wanting to live with her daughter.
To that extent, San Kyi’s longing takes on a purer quality but equally as the film implies is rendered impossible in the world in which she lives in which love is a luxury few can afford. Gradually, she begins to turn her rage inward, sabotaging her relationship with Theint due to her jealously and insecurity and injuring herself at work while preoccupied about her love her life. Romantic and economic freedoms go hand in hand, while San Kyi continues to pine for an idealised pastorality outside of the city in the place where she grew up. Nevertheless, her life seems to improve after separating from her mother, getting a new job, and meeting new people even if her love for Theint lingers as an unresolved memory. The film’s boxy 4:3 ratio echoes the ways in which San Kyi is continually constrained, able to find true release only in pastoral fantasy and ancient ritual.
Fruit Gathering screens 14th/15th October as part of this year’s BFI London Film Festival.
Trailer (English subtitles)
