Panay is a 2015 feature film directed by Taiwanese director Cheng Yu-Chieh and Lekal Sumi Cilangasan. It is inspired by a true story.
Panay is a very common female name among the Taiwanese Indigenous tribe, it simply stands for the beautiful spike of rice.
This is one of the few Taiwanese movies that filmed from an indigenous perspective. Through the cross ethnic cooperation between two directors, Cheng Yu-Chieh (Han) and Lekal Sumi (Pangcah). Actors are mostly new to the stage, they are fresh yet persuasive. The movie was being awarded the Audience Choice Award from the Taipei Film Festival. Panay's theme song "Aka Pisawad" won the Best Original Film Song of the 52nd Golden Horse Awards.
Plot
Panay worked in the city as a journalist. One day, she found her tribe has been overdeveloped and changed by tourism. They were losing their land and their culture, so she decided to return home to bring back the abandon terrace. In the process, she found it's not only about the land, but also about who she really is.
The story of a Taipei news reporter who returns to her indigenous village and joins a campaign to stop outsiders taking farmland for development is nothing new, but its setting is idyllic and the acting naturalistic.
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