Tribeca 2014 Review: ICE POISON, A Mesmerizing, Stark Depiction of Drugs ...

Grinding poverty and severely restricted life and economic choices push two impoverished denizens of Myanmar into drug dealing, and using, with predictably dire consequences in Midi Z's strong, stylistically assured third feature Ice Poison.

As in his previous features Return to Burma (2011) and Poor Folk (2012), Midi Z sets Ice Poison in Lashio, the place of his birth, in the northern part of Burma, near the border with China, and home to large ethnic Chinese population. Midi Z shows us the side of the country that tourists are shielded from, with the lives of ordinary citizens struggling to survive. He does this with a deliberately paced, minimalist documentary-like aesthetic, with copious long takes building to mesmerizing effect, mirroring the way Midi Z's two central characters succumb to their addiction, sealing the hopeless fates they have set out to escape.

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/04/27/tribeca-2014-review-ice-poison-a-mesmerizing-stark-depiction-of-drugs/