Midi Z’s The Exiles draws on Heart of Darkness with Worthington aboard
Midi Z says The Exiles, starring Sam Worthington, David Duchovny and Ke-Xi Wu, is in early post-production for a hoped-for 2027 release.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
3 min read
Midi Z’s The Exiles is borrowing a spark from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, with Sam Worthington, David Duchovny and Ke-Xi Wu leading the cast, the Taiwan-based Myanmar filmmaker told Variety.
The director discussed the film while attending the Malaysia International Film Festival, where he served on the jury 15 years after making his own first feature. He said the new project uses Conrad’s famous novel as a point of departure for a present-day story rather than a straight adaptation.
According to Midi Z, The Exiles also takes some inspiration from a real criminal case in Southeast Asia. He told Variety the film is an original fictional work, and said his version heads in a different direction from Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, the best-known screen reworking of Conrad’s book.
What is Midi Z’s The Exiles about?
Midi Z has not laid out a full plot, but he told Variety the film continues his long-running interest in migration, identity and people caught between places. The Heart of Darkness connection is a thematic starting point: Conrad’s novel is the literary reference he named, while the film itself is a contemporary original story.
The production is a U.S.-Taiwan co-production and was shot entirely in Taiwan, according to Variety. Roughly 90% of the dialogue is in English, and the film has now moved into early post-production. Midi Z said he hopes it will be released in 2027.
The project arrives after a career built across borders. Midi Z told Variety he did not attend film school and learned by reading books, studying online reviews and using whatever film resources he could find.
A major turning point came in 2009, when he was chosen for the first Golden Horse Film Academy in Taiwan. There, filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien mentored him, selected his screenplay and joined him on location scouts in New Taipei City for early projects connected to Myanmar, Variety reported.
Midi Z recalled Hou encouraging him to return to stories about his homeland. He told Variety that guidance shaped his work over the next decade and a half, as he made films tied to Southeast Asia and questions of cultural belonging.
The director said Southeast Asian cinema sits apart from Chinese-language cinema and described it as marginal and personal. He also credited Hou’s humanistic style as an influence on his own films, which have taken him through multiple countries while circling back to migration and displacement.
Why was Midi Z at MIFFest?
At this year’s Malaysia International Film Festival, Midi Z joined the jury and watched 10 competition titles. He told Variety each film had its own identity and point of view.
He also argued that originality is becoming harder and more necessary as film festivals grow across Asia. In his view, cinema is both art and business, and the pressure of trends and mainstream taste can pull directors away from their own voice.
Looking ahead, Midi Z told Variety he wants to work more with filmmakers in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Thailand. He cited Malaysia’s historical and cultural ties through British colonial history, and Thailand’s closeness to Myanmar, as openings for regional storytelling.
After years of living and working across different countries, Midi Z said he no longer treats home as one fixed location. He told Variety that shifting identity and cultural belonging give him freedom as a filmmaker.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.