Diary of a forgotten war
Daniel Nelson
How does it feel to be forgotten by the world, asks the publicity blurb for Myanmar Diaries, and it’s a reasonable question for a coup, dictatorship and civil war that’s been shoved out of the headlines in many parts of the world.
The film wants to remind people of what happened in February 2021 and of the ensuing clampdown and guerrilla war that continues today.
It’s made up of 10 shorts, a combination of fictional work by young film-makers and vivid documentary footage, some shot through doorways and beside windows. The quality and impact of this creative resistance vary, but the overall result is moving, sad, disturbing - and sometimes inspiring, like the film of a 67-year-old mother reprimanding scores of soldiers as she walks up and down a line of packed army vehicles. You should be ashamed of yourselves, she yells at them.
A taboo-busting radicalism occasionally bursts through, particularly in a story featuring a naked man mopping blood and imbibing the scent of his dead wife’s underwear.
It’s a sign of the troubled times that the 10 young film-makers who have contributed to the film must remain anonymous.
“This film is a reaction to the ‘spring-like dream’ of freedom in Myanmar that lasted for merely ten years. It is about the enthusiasm and hope of a young generation brutally crushed,” their manifesto declares.
The film has won the inaugural Tony Elliott Impact Award, supported by TimeOut, in honour of the magazine’s founder, Tony Elliott, a committed human rights advocate and champion of emerging film talent. The award will give financial support to the filmmakers, and additional promotional support to help amplify the film’s distribution.
One day when the military dictatorship is just a date in the history books the names of the directors listed only as the Myanmar Film Collective will be known and restored to the credits. And perhaps they will bring out another composite film showing how democracy was regained.
In the meantime we have to face the bitter realities shown here on the screen, and can only mourn the losses and admire the bravery.
* Myanmar Diaries is showing at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, 17-25 March, in-person and online. Info: https://ff.hrw.org/london