In the recently released documentary “Padauk: Myanmar Spring” (2021, USA, 56 min), director Jeanne Hallacy and Rares Michael Ghilezan take the viewer to the streets of Myanmar during the heady days following the February 2021 military coup.
Through Nant, a young, first-time protester, we meet three human rights activists whose lives have been turned upside down by the coup. As the protests continue, Nant comes to understand the truth of a brutal regime that has continued to wage war against its own people for decades. Against a foreboding backdrop, Nant’s political awakening regarding the plight of others in her ethnically diverse country gives hope for the future.
Nant, now residing in the USA, helps offer insight into the youth-led protests that erupted in Myanmar following the 1 February military coup.
In many ways the film offers a look into the coming of age for many young people who had grown up with a sense of hope over the last decade as the country began to open up and some form of democracy began to flourish in the wake of the 2015 victory for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National league for Democracy (NLD) party.
With members of the elected civilian leaders arrested, the people of Yangon, Mandalay and many other cities and towns took it upon themselves to protest and fight back.
Nant was caught up in the protests, an action that for many like her proved a coming of age and a wake-up call. As the weeks went by through February and March, she recognized how the Myanmar people had been misled over the decades through government media and propaganda.
She came to realize that what was happening on the streets of central Myanmar was reminiscent of the military’s repression of such groups as the Rohingya and ethnic groups in the country and that people must apologize for the harm caused. She said the country was being torn apart and that people were changing.
“I didn’t use to believe what I heard through media outlets such as DVB, VOA, Mizzima and Irrawaddy,” she said, but in time as society came under pressure due to the crackdown by the security forces, a truer picture began to emerge.
“The junta is ruining lives, the junta is ruining our future,” she said, yet “people keep rising.”
One of the main characters in the documentary is Zaw, a teacher-turned-activist, who said as Generation Z or Gen Z, they were the last generation to fight against the military – the last chance to crush the horror of military rule.
Zaw said put the fight into perspective. Our grandparents failed against General Ne Win, our parents failed against General Than Shwe, he said, and now it is Gen Z that is fighting against General Min Aung Hlaing.
Beautifully augmented by poetry and art, “Padauk: Myanmar Spring” shows the resilience and determination of the people of Myanmar, and the sacrifices they've made.
As director Hallacy told Mizzima: “It’s actually a story about political awakening - told through Nant- as one of the millions of youth who were previously not engaged in political or social issues - but realized through the coup that they had been blinded by the military propaganda and lacked compassion for the Rohingya and ethnics.”
The documentary offers “a seed of hope amongst the horror,” says Hallacy.
