Myanmar Diaries
Ten young anonymous filmmakers report on life in the aftermath of the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Courageous and very impressive.
Myanmar is one of those countries that repeatedly appear in the international headlines, only to be ousted again for months on end. Ten young Burmese filmmakers, who must remain anonymous because revealing their names would risk their lives, have dared to create this shocking cinematic appeal. This hybrid documentary shows the aftermath of the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021 – which followed ten years of fragile democratic transition - and the ensuing nationwide protests and civil disobedience. Mobile phone footage shot by citizen journalists documents the brutal and arbitrary response of the military towards demonstrators. One young woman, for example, is shot dead for wearing a red T-shirt – red being considered the colour of the protests. In between demonstrations, we also see the opposition members at home. Their faces are never recognisable, but their fear, their determination, their grief, their anger, and the huge void that their friend’s death has left behind in their everyday lives, become even more palpable.
The members of this anonymous Myanmar film collective neither want to give up, nor to be forced into the role of victims. This is exactly why this film was made. It is a document of resistance using the tools of cinema. Alternately poetic and journalistic, raw and refined, desperate and hopeful, violent and impressionistic. (source: www.berlinale.de)