Burma All Inclusive reviews
Review by on 29 Sep 2008
Burma. All Inclusive. And I mean all inclusive. After being isolated from the rest of the world for decades by the junta, Austrian director Roland Wehap seeks to discover the hidden truth behind the appealing guise upheld for tourists. Five-star hotels, an appreciable cultural inheritance, astonishing nature, friendly people - a 16-day bargain holiday!
This semi documentary succeeds in ironically illustrating both the charm and devastation of Myanmar. With no freedom to film the Burmese’ interviews, Wehap is forced to use personified voice-overs which injure its otherwise factual style. He exhibits the lives of novice monks learning to read, shoemakers moulding old car tyres into shoes, young girls rolling one thousand cigarettes a day for half-a-dollar and smiths crafting recycled metal into the most inventive items. Even though he does this in a sarcastically humorous manner, contrasting the so-called Western World to the dilapidated Myanmar, partially distorts the ideal balanced account.
By switching from the pretty picture, a TV holiday advert narrated by an American woman with mercantile propositions, to the grass-root level of fear and poverty, Wehap plays with the feelings and conscience of the audience. Our materialistic, technology-oriented lives are juxtaposed with the simple, unknown and fragile existence of the Burmese. Even though the negative film frames, raw movements of the camera and dramatised interviews shown as sound waves blend like oil and water, they do dig deep into the confused mindset of the Burmese and anonymous reality hidden by the golden pagodas.
Alisha Hasan (Young Critics)
Burma. All Inclusive. And I mean all inclusive. After being isolated from the rest of the world for decades by the junta, Austrian director Roland Wehap seeks to discover the hidden truth behind the appealing guise upheld for tourists. Five-star hotels, an appreciable cultural inheritance, astonishing nature, friendly people - a 16-day bargain holiday!This semi documentary succeeds in ironically illustrating both the charm and devastation of Myanmar. With no freedom to film the Burmese’ interviews, Wehap is forced to use personified voice-overs which injure its otherwise factual style. He exhibits the lives of novice monks learning to read, shoemakers moulding old car tyres into shoes, young girls rolling one thousand cigarettes a day for half-a-dollar and smiths crafting recycled metal into the most inventive items. Even though he does this in a sarcastically humorous manner, contrasting the so-called Western World to the dilapidated Myanmar, partially distorts the ideal balanced account.
By switching from the pretty picture, a TV holiday advert narrated by an American woman with mercantile propositions, to the grass-root level of fear and poverty, Wehap plays with the feelings and conscience of the audience. Our materialistic, technology-oriented lives are juxtaposed with the simple, unknown and fragile existence of the Burmese. Even though the negative film frames, raw movements of the camera and dramatised interviews shown as sound waves blend like oil and water, they do dig deep into the confused mindset of the Burmese and anonymous reality hidden by the golden pagodas.
Alisha Hasan (Young Critics)
Film details
Burma All Inclusive
DOCUMENTARIES
Director: Roland Wehap
Austria, 2007.
96 mins. Burmese and English with English subtitles.
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