Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.

Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of decades-spanning personal footage, this is an intimate portrait of M.I.A. , the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions. She began as Matangi, the daughter of the founder of Sri Lanka’s armed Tamil resistance. As child, she fled to the UK, became Maya, a precocious and creative immigrant teenager. Where she later emerged on the global stage as the musician known as M.I.A.: a sonic sketchbook that blended Tamil politics, art school punk, hip-hop beats and the unwavering, ultra-confident voice of a burgeoning multicultural youth. "The film comes from a place of deep admiration for MIA, but unlike more fawning biographies, it makes a convincing case that this admiration is well earned." (The Guardian)

Keywords

  • Creatives: Make Music!
  • hip hop
  • migration
  • politics
  • pop culture
  • Rapid Eye Movies
  • resistance

Actors

  • M.I.A.
  • Diplo
  • Spike Jonze
  • Madonna
  • Nicki Minaj

Director

  • Stephen Loveridge

Music, Dance, Theater, Documentary


1h 36min


16+

EN


DE

Sri Lanka
United Kingdom
United States of America
2018
Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of decades-spanning personal footage, this is an intimate portrait of M.I.A. , the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.

Drawn from a never-before-seen cache of decades-spanning personal footage, this is an intimate portrait of M.I.A. , the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.


She began as Matangi, the daughter of the founder of Sri Lanka’s armed Tamil resistance. As child, she fled to the UK, became Maya, a precocious and creative immigrant teenager.


Where she later emerged on the global stage as the musician known as M.I.A.: a sonic sketchbook that blended Tamil politics, art school punk, hip-hop beats and the unwavering, ultra-confident voice of a burgeoning multicultural youth.


"The film comes from a place of deep admiration for MIA, but unlike more fawning biographies, it makes a convincing case that this admiration is well earned." (The Guardian)

Festivals

Cast & Crew