BURMA: A HUMAN TRAGEDY

I wasn’t the only one who considered it a little baffling when this screener disc turned up out of the blue at SGM Towers. I mean, for all our good intentions and attempts at being socially responsible people, it’s not often that we’re invited to review earnest documentaries which serve to highlight terrible human rights shortfalls in other parts of the world.

Still, in for a penny, in for a pound …

This is pretty relentless in its pursuit of harrowing the viewer with images and facts about the horror of the Burmese people’s lives during the last few decades. Angelica Huston’s opening narration tells us that the country, also known as Myanmar, is the wealthiest in South Asia. But even this statistic is met with paradoxical scenes of impoverished locals staggering limp and lifeless through their futile existence.

The root cause of their problems, we’re quickly informed, is down to sadistic political leaders turning the country into a military state, and the subsequent civil war that has ensued over the years. In a bid to contain their atrocities against humanity, the government imprisoned anyone who dared to comment on events: newspaper columnists, internet bloggers etc …

From the offset, the footage contained herein includes that of dead bodies being scraped from wherever they’re found and buried in shallow, makeshift graves. We see scenes of soldiers from the Karen National Army, a resistance group, engaged in gunfire against the state’s military Junta – and the casualties that such unforgiving combat results in.

With the military police turning up at rice-pickers’ homes and robbing them of their modest possessions – literally pots and pans in some cases – it comes as no surprise to learn that many have fled their homeland in search of the sanctuary of Bangladeshi refugee camps.

Sadly, as Huston’s sombre narration spells out, these camps – likened to concentration camps and prisons by our narrator – offer little more than simply a different kind of Hell. Children casually tell of how they’re afraid to venture out because the men there will rape them at will; one father details in front of his distraught-looking son about how he daren’t sleep at night in case his family are robbed or raped – a threat at all times.

Inter-refugee violence is a threat too (witnessed through footage of a savage fist-fight), along with beatings from Bangladeshi Muslims and the inevitable solace that the Burmese victims of circumstance find in drugs and alcohol. As the misery piles up, we see the knock-on effect on the refugees’ children – the ones they’re ultimately hoping to save: there is little in the way of health care or employment for them, and even less in the way of education.

Political riots turn ugly. Destitute rice farmers are forced to search their fields by hand for landmines – we’re told that while over 130 countries agree that landmines should be banned (and signed a treaty agreeing never to use them), Burma still employs them. People are filmed having the most hideous burns and war wounds imaginable seen to by a primitive health service crippled further by poverty.

If there is one beacon of light in all of this, it comes in the form of Aung San Suu Kyi. She was a Burmese escapee who returned in 1989 to fight the good fight. Despite being put under house arrest for 21 years, she resisted all suggestion of fleeing the country and continues to make a stand in the belief that her people deserve a better life. As a result, she was democratically elected as president of the country and has since been lauded as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She’s affectionately referred to by her people as "The Lady".

And it’s a lady she most definitely comes across as in the frank, sincere interviews she gives which punctuate this otherwise unremittingly grim documentary. Fiercely intelligent and visibly determined, her English is fluent and her commitment unwavering as she speaks of Burma’s troubles – and the failings of its neighbouring countries in their moral obligation to help.

Neil Hollander’s 2011 film is comprised entirely of footage detailing the death, violence, poverty and struggle of the Burmese people. The only respite comes in the occasional addresses to the screen from either The Lady or slightly befuddled victims. It shouldn’t be any other way, of course – this is reality, presented as reality – but it is worth mentioning in the interests of forewarning viewers potentially seeking exploitation. You’re in the wrong place.

Huston’s narration is, for the most part, rather deliberately paced and impassive by what I’d suspect is very careful design. Occasionally, she does let emotion show through – such as when her voice raises and wobbles while reporting statistics on landmine-related injuries.

Other than that, how do you review a film like this? It hits the mark, provokes thought and angers. It humbles you into appreciating the simplest things in your life … and therefore is a resounding success. Although, disconcertingly, there is no happy ending. There’s barely a conclusion at all, just a final thought from The Lady, who hopes the future of her country will be better for the children being raised there at present …

BURMA: A HUMAN TRAGEDY is presented uncut in its original 16x9 aspect ratio. The film utilises archive footage as well as interviews etc commissioned for the documentary, so it’s fair to expect a transfer that wavers in quality. Mostly though, the picture is a sharp and colourful one. The odd, brief linking scene is presented in black-and-white.

2.0 audio largely consists of Huston’s English narration. Most interviewees also speak in English. There are occasional contributions from those who only speak Burmese; forced yellow English subtitles are provided during these infrequent occurrences.

Optional Chinese subtitles are provided on the disc.

The disc opens with an animated main menu page. There’s a disclaimer on the main menu page which states "Some scenes were re-enacted due to extreme carnage". Although not overly gory, there is a lot of graphic suffering in this film – none of which seems simulated, I admit.

From there, an animated main menu page allows access to the feature via 9 chapters.

There are no extra features, save for a flexible wristband (or ‘bracelet’) which comes inside the packaging, bearing the slogan "For the love of Freedom".

BURMA: A HUMAN TRAGEDY is not one to settle down to on a Saturday evening with 8 cans and a family-sized bag of crisps. Even if you’ve read this review and thought it may sound like a dubiously trashy mondo feature along the lines of SHOCKING ASIA (and, though I don’t derive entertainment from such films, I appreciate that some do) – don’t: you’re wrong.

This is a very well-made, sincere, well-meaning and unremittingly miserable document of a problem that I for one didn’t realise was so profound.

My eyes have been opened, my mind broadened, my heart crushed. As such, it’s impossible to recommend this feature along the lines of the usual SGM fare. But it is a heavy, heady expose into everyday violence that surpasses anything the Fred Vogels and Nick Palumbos of this world could ever muster.

Review by Stuart Willis