In the Magway region of Myanmar, an area home to one of the oldest petroleum industries in the world, husband and wife, Thein Shwe and Htwe Tin, run an oil field producing a few barrels a day. They plan to buy their youngest son a motorbike. Mud slicked hands work sputtering machines. The ambient noise of a football match hums from a nearby television.

The new feature documentary from British-Palestinian filmmaker Saeed Taji Farouky, A Thousand Fires catches a glimpse of a family’s private and public life — their community, their aspirations and spirituality, the pace and rhythms of their day to day, their memories of a nation’s turbulent past. A life hard fought for, a stillness earned.

The film had its World Premiere as the opening film in Locarno's Critics' Week 2021, where it won the Marco Zucchi Award for most innovative documentary.