ANDERS Østergaard’s award-winning Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country is one of the must-see documentaries of the year.

The film provides a unique and often shocking glimpse into life on the streets of Burma’s capital – Rangoon – and chronicles the appalling treatment of the Burmese citizens and monks during the Saffron uprising of 2007.

It’s comprised almost completely of footage captured by a network of video journalists (VJs), who risked torture, imprisonment and even death in their quest to honestly report honestly what is going on in their closed country.

The material has been made possible through illegal smuggling and broadcast to international media (whom the government accuses of lying) and into Burma via satellite.

But it provides an alarming insight into the day-to-day struggle faced by the Burmese people, whose various attempts to overthrow their tyrannical leaders are met with violent clampdowns.

Østergaard’s film – selected from over 50 hours of footage – doesn’t seek to voyeurise or sensationalise, but rather offer a realistic portrait of what the uprising was like for its people, and how it was brutally put down.

Of the many lasting images, sequences involving riot police charging large crowds and beating protesters and monks leaves a bitter taste in the mouth, as does a devastating image of the body of a murdered monk floating in the river.

Its frankness is to be applauded, while its power to inspire action – as evidenced by the way in which the film has been embraced by political leaders around the globe – exemplifies why Burma VJ is such an important movie.

It really does deserve to reach a wide audience, if only to underline the dangers of political indifference and the importance of the freedoms that everyone one of us holds so dear.

Certificate: 15
Running time: 84mins
UK Release Date: July 17, 2009

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