Kham Sai Kong
Myanmar, Germany | 2011 | 7 min
Language : Burmese
Subtitle : English

A grandfather with a heart of gold. But he swears like a trooper. He cares for his grandchild, whom he calls “Sweetie Pie” or “Sonny Boy”, letting him do practically anything, like cutting up his banana with a CD, while shouting at him. In his debut film, Kham Sai Kong portrays this ambiguous relationship as a game between children separated by… two generations.

U Win Maung is a grandfather with a heart of gold. He loves looking after his favourite grandson, sometimes forgetting his name and hailing him simply as “Sweetie Pie” or “Sonny Boy”. Sweetie Pie is the first film made by Kham Sai Kong, with support from the Yangon Film School, founded by the Anglo-Burmese director Lindsey Merrison to foster the emergence of young filmmakers in Myanmar. From this strange closed relationship between two “children” (it is a moot point whether the old man is looking after the child or vice versa!), there arises a persistent sense of unease. U Win Maung, loving though he may be, never stops addressing his grandson as “motherfucker” or in other such matey terms, while letting him get away with just about anything… for instance cutting up a banana with a CD. The picture that emerges is that of a relationship tinged with cruelty: the wrinkled old man, confined to his chair, sadly and anxiously contemplates the life gradually withdrawing from his weary body, as if the young Min Khan Ko, his eyes fixed on the light outside, were intent on “stealing” it from him.

Emmanuel Chicon

Translation BMP Translations

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