The Myanmar Motion Picture Organization – Burma’s film censorship board – banned the film, Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess in Rangoon, because it could allegedly “damage the ethnic unity of the state.”

 

The movie, which was slated to be the opening film for the Human Rights Human Dignity film festival, is about the real-life story of a Shan leader Sao Kya Seng and his Austrian wife. The life of Sao Kya Seng is a sensitive topic in Burma because he was arrested by the Burmese Army during General Ne Win’s coup d’état, and killed in prison. The Shan ethnic minority is one of several minorities in Burma that have endured atrocious violence under Ne Win’s brutal military regime. The Burmese Army has been condemned by the international community for its discrimination against ethnic nationalities in Burma, as well as use of sexual violence against women as part of the Burmanisation campaign.

 

Igor Blazevic, former Steering Committee Member of the World Movement for Democracy, and founder of the human rights documentary film festival, One World, Igor Blazevic, decried the existence of the Burma film censoring board, as well as the ban of the film saying the action “highlights how the military still influences what can and cannot be done in Burma,” which “harms peacebuilding” in Burma.