Secretive state's film festival is a reel eye-opener at home and away

Myanmar

The first Myanmar Film Festival was a low-key affair. There were no award galas, no industry panels and no red carpets at its opening in Bangkok two weeks ago. Just five films by one director were screened during the course of three days at a local shopping- mall cineplex. But for a national cinema with a beleaguered past and an uncertain future, the festival is already a small miracle in itself.

Clad in a grey shirt and dark trousers, with a computer bag slung over his shoulder, Kyi Soe Tun - the festival's featured director - looks more like a college professor than a veteran filmmaker with 34 movies to his name. After 25 years as writer, director and producer of films ranging from historical epics to contemporary household dramas, Tun is now the president of the Myanmar Motion Picture Organisation (MMPO), which helps to produce and promote films in his country.

After a smaller set of screenings in Singapore last year, the MMPO organised the Bangkok festival as part of an optimistic plan to push Myanmar's movies into the Asian cinema mainstream.

Like Thailand, Myanmar has a long cinematic history. Film pioneer U Ohn Maung began making documentaries in 1914, and the first silent feature, Myitta Nit Thuyar (Love and Liquor), was released six years later. The 1950s and early 60s were a brief golden age, when almost 80 high-quality Myanmar films were produced a year, and seen by an adoring public at home and around Southeast Asia.

But from the beginning, the relationship between cinema and state has been difficult. The British colonial government prohibited films with anti-imperialist themes; the Japanese put film production on hold during the occupation; and, with the Revolutionary Council's takeover in 1962, all media were co-opted for propaganda purposes.

Since 1988, all films have been subject to government censorship, which rejects outright any political themes, love scenes and other seemingly arbitrary elements (certain hair-styles have been banned). Many of those imprisoned for their political views during the past two decades have been film industry figures, including comedian Zargana, and directors Tin Soe and U Aung Lwin.