COVER STORY

COMMENTS (0)

RECOMMEND (292)

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

PLUSONE

MORE

E-MAIL

PRINT

TEXT SIZE

Film directors are asked to preserve national culture, character and "Myanmar" styles, to contribute to the flourishing of patriotism and Union Spirit and to broaden the horizons of the people.

The upcoming film about the Salone, or sea-gypsies, was financed by the government (see box story). The movie industry calls these productions "policy kar" or policy movies. If a movie is financed by a department of the spook apparatus it is comes under the genre "htauk lan yay kar" or intelligence movie (not to be confused with an intelligent movie). Film-makers Saytaman, Maha Media and the Myat Mingalar Company are financially supported by the government, according to Rangoon film critics.

In the mid-1990s Myat Mingalar Ltd was set up by the then Minister of Railways Win Sein. One of its first films was Thu Kyun Ma Khan Byi (Never Shall We Be Enslaved), directed by Dr Myo Thant Tin based on a novel by Phone Naing. The Minister of Railways donated 300 million kyat to the production. It was probably not a complete coincidence that Thu Kyun Ma Khan Byi won seven academy awards in 1996.

Prime Minister Gen Khin Nyunt usually attends the annual Burmese Academy Awards ceremony. He also hosts special dinner party for Academy award winners. His favorite actor, Nyunt Win, has won Academy Awards on five occasions.

"The Academy [awards] keeps coming back to the same people and it is now predictable [who will win]," said a critic.

"They [favored movie stars] are nicely treated," a Rangoon journalist concurred.

This year, Bagyi Soe Moe’s film Ngar Thutabar Yaukkyar Meinma (Men and Women are All Human) won seven academy awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.

The movie is about an HIV/AIDS carrier who accidentally transmits the virus to his daughter’s friend. This is significant—HIV/AIDS movie scripts did not even pass the censorship board in the past. This is the first time a film on the subject has received Academy awards.

It also happens to be in line with government policy. Gen Khin Nyunt now publicly backs AIDS awareness campaigning.

Most recently, the Prime Minister’s seven-point road map has been put on the agenda. Minister of Information Maj-Gen Kyaw Hsan told the 2004 Academy Awards audience that he believed all those in the Burmese movie world would actively take part in the implementation of the seven-step roadmap for the emergence of a new "genuine democracy." Are we to expect a movie on The Traitorous Cohorts Who Returned from the Cold? Or perhaps From Jungle to Disciplined Democracy?

Although there have been improvements in Burma’s motion picture industry since 1988, it remains in a bad way. Strongly authoritarian environments rarely engender brilliance. In many ways the state of Burma’s movie industry reflects the reality of the country much more closely than do its films.