Poverty-stricken A-Hong has no choice but to take his younger sister and illegally cross the Myanmar-Thailand. However, his sister is sold to human traffickers in the process. A-Hong goes to Bangkok and works under a tour guide in order to free his sister, but when a flood devastates local tourism, he is forced to return to the border to smuggle raw materials for amphetamine production. San-Mei, the woman who takes A-Hong’s sister away, only works for the traffickers in exchange for a Taiwanese passport promised by the snakeheads. However, this promise turns out to be nothing but a pipe dream.

With four interconnected stories, Poor Folk, which alludes to DOSTOYEVSKY’s novel of the same name, vividly portrays the struggles of displaced Burmese people. Through Midi Z’s unflinching lens, an equal amount of hope and despair is captured non-judgmentally. The film also addresses Taiwan’s role as a beacon of hope for Southeast Asians who wish to lift themselves out of poverty, corresponding to the director’s personal story of leaving to study in Taiwan at a young age as his family’s last hope.

DVD source：Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Ministry of Culture, R.O.C.