Blood Amber(HKAFF 2018)

Semaine de la critique, Locarno International Film Festival

Taipei Film Festival

An alumni of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Golden Horse Film Academy, Burma-born Taiwan-educated filmmaker Lee Yong-chao covertly shot his first feature-length documentary in the volatile war zone of northern Myanmar. Deep in an amber-rich forest controlled by the rebel Kachin Independence Army, a group of villagers work day in and day out in the mines in hopes of finding amber ore that will provide them with a way out of poverty. Blood Amber detailedly documents the villagers’ harsh yet mundane daily lives of repetitive toil amid the constant threat of the civil war that may reach them at any moment.