Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls is the story of a journey incorporating music, women’s issues, politics and globalisation, produced in a country at a time of massive societal and political change.
We first meet the Tiger Girls in 2010 when Myanmar is ruled by a ruthless military dictatorship.
The evolution of the band mirrors the changing political situation in Myanmar. Initially, when filming begins, the girls face strict censorship laws and social expectations. Since birth the girls have lived in a society ruled by a repressive regime and have been bound and controlled by rules set by the government, their religion and the expectations of their parents.
“Don’t kiss no guys in the disco bar, ‘cos that won’t fly in Myanmar,” croon the girls.
The Tiger Girls are formed at a time when women performing in nightclubs are considered close to prostitutes and coloured wigs, Facebook, Youtube and foreign media is banned. Burma’s ruling military junta requires all musicians to submit lyrics to its censorship board before they can be performed or recorded.
The Tiger Girls have big Hollywood dreams. They come from a diverse range of backgrounds. All are well educated and all dream of helping their families by becoming an international success. Wai Hnin lives with her family who run a street pork stall. Kimmy is from an ethnic minority. Ah Moon sings hymns every Sunday in her father’s Baptist church. Cha Cha is a devout Buddhist and the daughter of a high-ranking soldier. Htike Htike wants plastic surgery to correct what she sees as her physical imperfections.
The Tiger Girls are certainly beautiful but not in the prescribed sense and they struggle to overcome their own and society’s expectations of what it is to beautiful and a woman in the changing political landscape of Myanmar.
The girls have been selected by enthusiastic expat Nikki May to form a girl band, because they can sing or dance but not necessarily both. She determinedly and sometimes ruthlessly mentors the Tiger Girls and is driven to help them make it big and realise their dreams.
While the girls struggle to find their voice, Aung San Suu Kyi is released from 15 years of house arrest and voted in as an MP. Myanmar faces intense scrutiny from the outside world and wrestles with its own search for political freedom and international recognition. Within this environment of political and social change the girls have to learn how to negotiate a new Myanmar and their place within it.
As the girls cautiously search for freedom of expression, they find their original voice through writing and performing their own songs based on their own experiences, despite the tradition in Myanmar of copy track performances of international hits.
Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls screens as part of the Sydney Film Festival on June 13.
