Here, in Irene Marty's film titled "In the Shadow of the Pagodas — The Other Burma," we encounter the wretched of the Earth. This haunting documentary gives a voice to Burma's traumatized ethnic nationalities, taking us to the war-ravaged border regions where internally displaced people struggle to survive in harsh conditions under the ever-present threat of the Burmese military.
The interviews with orphans who saw their parents gunned down and beaten to death by soldiers viscerally convey the grim reality of life for hundreds of thousands of Karen, Shan and other Burmese nationalities that have felt the jackboot of relentless "pacification" campaigns.
We also meet students who fled to the jungle after the 1988 uprising "to carry on their struggle for democracy," and other guerrilla groups that have been fighting for the past 60 years to get the autonomy the government once promised.