The Bus Driver is short documentary film produced by The Scottish Documentary Institute and directed by Ku Ki.
Released in May 2024, it follows a day in the life of a trans bus driver and his wife as they try to make a living in a country beset by curfews and power cuts.
The couple own or lease a bus and run it like a taxi on a fixed route around the city. They have the freedom of operating their own business but with this comes the responsibility of maintaining the vehicle and making a profit. The more passengers they pick up the better.
What is extraordinary about their situation is that their marriage is accepted and no one blinks an eyelid at this strange couple, she taking fares in her pink gingham trouser suit and he behind the driving wheel, in his jeans shorts and Hawaiian shirt, chain smoking cigars. They are simple and uneducated young people but are living their authentic lives.
(This is even more astonishing, knowing that the Myanmar military government severely criminalises its LGBTQ+ citizens).
As the film progresses we see how they deal with the other bus drivers and with one another. There is an intense emotional balance to their relationship but ultimately they seem to be happy.
At the end of the day they return to their shanty town shack and the wife jokes about how she would have been richer if she had married a beggar. Her husband replies that they could adopt children and send them out to beg!
This film is a rare glimpse into the reality of poor Myanmar lives. The vibe is raw and the dialogue is sometimes difficult to follow, but perhaps its best repeated images are that of counting piles of banknotes and of a butterfly which has become trapped on the bus. It is still there the next day.
PRIDE FULL FEST runs from September 13-22, 2024, with in-person screenings from the 13th to the 15th in
New York City and a virtual run from the 16th to the 22nd across the United States.
Robert Malcolm is an Interior Designer who relocated from London to his home town of Edinburgh in 2019. Under the pen name of Bobby Burns he had his first novel, a gay erotic thriller called Bone Island published by Homofactus Press in 2011.
