GRAND LEDGE, Mich. — The Sun Theatre in Grand Ledge will host its first show since March 2020 this weekend, and it's a movie that was shot primarily in Lansing and directed by Burmese refugee Thang Mung.
"It's an exciting, action, sentimental film with a very powerful message," Marc Hemingway, producer and actor, said.
"We thought about, what if today was our last day? What kind of message we would like to send to the world and, this is something that I need for myself, too: forgiveness," Mung said.
The movie is called "Thorn in the Center of the Heart." It was written by Mung and his wife, Anneli, in honor of Mung's brother, who passed away in Burma when Mung was nine.
"I was broken, I was angry with God," Mung said. "Whatever we see from the movie, is what I felt."
"I've watched it now a dozen times, and every time I've cried," Hemingway said.
iStar Video Production started working on the film December of last year.
The movie is about, "a retired federal agent who retired from the army, and he is tasked with an assignment by an active military general, and he has to come to grips with -- whether that's the right assignment for him," Hemingway said.
The actors for the movie were mostly volunteers that came from all over the U.S.
Hemingway said it's, "almost Hollywood quality, with a very low budget."
The film is bilingual, with subtitles in both English and Zomi, a dialect of Burma from the Zomi tribe, where Mung is from. Mung and his family came to the states when he was 14 years old to escape religious persecution.
"My mother language is called Zomi. This is the first Zomi film that will have a showing in a theater, so we're kind of making history," Mung said.
"This theatrical showing is the first, to our knowledge, the first Zomi Burmese film to be played in not only an American theater, but for the most part, worldwide in a theater," Hemingway said. "It's considered to be the highest quality Zomi Burmese film to date, internationally."
The film, one hour and 22 minutes, will be shown across the nation and maybe even across the world. There will be multiple showings at the Sun Theatre in Grand Ledge during the month of September. The first will be Friday Sept. 3 at 7:15 p.m. You can buy tickets ahead of time here.
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