Myanmar Diaries 緬甸日誌
Myanmar, the Netherlands, Norway / 2022 / Colour / 70 mins / In Burmese with English subtitles / Dir. The Myanmar Film Collective
MYANMAR DIARIES is built up of short films by ten young anonymous Burmese filmmakers, combined with emotionally harrowing citizen journalism documenting the junta’s brutality, as well as courageous resistance to it. The film shows how Myanmar goes from the military coup to nation-wide protests and civil disobedience, to barbaric repression where thousands of peaceful protesters are imprisoned and murdered, to a growing popular armed revolt against this monstrous military junta. Moving organically back and forth between documentary and fiction, the film offers a seamless flow in which the filmmakers find innovative creative ways to keep their protagonists anonymous. An extremely urgent film in a time when Myanmar has almost disappeared from the news headlines around the world.
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In such extraordinarily difficult times, a group of young Burmese filmmakers – both men and women - continue their work – as an act of creative resistance against the military regime. The group has chosen to remain anonymous, and calls itself The Myanmar Film Collective (MFC). They remain anonymous for their own safety, for thousands are being arrested and murdered for resisting the military regime, and those in the creative industries are being targeted as well. After the military coup in early February last year, the filmmakers wrote the following: This film is a reaction to the “spring-like dream” of freedom in Myanmar that lasted for merely ten years. It is about enthusiasm and hope of a young generation brutally crushed. Perversely, it is a nightmare that the older generations had hoped would never occur in this country again. The filmmakers in this collective currently living in Myanmar decided to express this confusing, nightmarish time and the state of hopelessness through the medium of film, and weave short documentary and partly fictionalised anonymous hybrid films together. MYANMAR DIARIES will be the collective expression of the youth born in the '90s and the older generation who have grown up during the military rule. In it, you will see not just the despair, but also the absurdity of the whole situation, the sheer horror of the foolishness of the thirst for power, as well as the never-ending hope that there is still a chance for good in this seemingly hopeless world.
One year later, as the film has its world premiere in February 2022 in Berlinale's Panorama, the MFC shares the following update: This film is an expression of the pain and suffering our country has suffered since the military coup. It is a cry of injustice. And a demand that the world take notice. Not to ignore us. Let the film become the statement that says “No More”. Let the film be a voice for the people who have no voice. We hope MYANMAR DIARIES will be a historical testament to remind us, and warn us and future generations about what must never happen again: that a country’s freedom can be taken away from it. We feel it our ethical duty to capture this horror on film. What has happened in Myanmar is not just a threat against the people of Myanmar, but against the principle of democracy and Human Rights in the entire world. If we allow any dictator to act as they want with impunity, it paves the way for the next monster to follow.
