Wait

You shouldn't bring them here. The hospital is not a playground.

– Shen Wei (Yee Yang Lee) is annoyed at his wife Xiao (Katlyn Wong)

Mummy...don't go.

– Joyena (Joyena Sum) begs her mother to stay with her and her brothers

To be politically penetrative in a humanist way is the holy grail for me. It doesn't have to be overt, it can be subtle and powerful too. If something is true for you, then say it.

– Filmmaker Yamin Tun on what motivates her work, The NZ Herald 27 September 2016

The word 'wait' is evocative for me and many asylum seekers because we spent so many years waiting for immigration status. Many of my memories are of waiting on plastic chairs in immigration halls for another stamp on a piece of paper.

– Writer/director Yamin Tun on the significance of calling her film Wait, The NZ Herald 27 September 2016

My mother, like the mother in the film, really struggled to integrate. Burma was so isolated back then...people walked everywhere and made everything by hand. My mother's very domestic and doesn't speak English so her husband and children were her only links to the outside world. Katlyn Wong, who plays the mum in Wait, grew up in 80s New Zealand and had a strong sense of her mother's isolation too.

– Writer/director Yamin Tun on her personal experience as a child of Burmese immigrants, The NZ Herald, 27 September 2016

I hope it's a fairly universal experience that people will recognise. This experience of being outside and trying to establish a life in a new place, I think it's true of anyone who moves anywhere

– Writer/director Yamin Tun on the subject matter of Wait, Stuff, 18 August 2016