As we have seen in a number of documentaries recently (“Long Period of Persecution“, “The Opium War), Myanmar is one of the most troubled countries in the world, particularly due to the issue with the Rohingya refugees and the drug smuggling that takes place throughout the country. Barbet Schroeder, in the film that concludes his “trilogy of evil” (the other two docs deal with Idi Amin Dada and Jacques Verges), deals with yet another significant issue, that of intense racism and particularly Islamophobia, which is focused and driven from the Burmese Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu.
Buy This Title
Schroeder creates a rather thorough portrait of the leader of the Buddhist extremist, presenting his life story and his current status, through interviews with various journalists, researchers and activists (both local and foreign), Wirathu’s own words and footage of the events that shaped and were driven by him. Through a rather captivating narration, we learn of how he came to become a monk, his association with the nationalist movement of 969 and the subsequent creation of an even more racist organization, after the former was banned. At the same time, through footage from mobile phones and amateur cameras, we watch the disasters his hate speeches have caused in the country, particularly on kalars, the extremely derogatory term him and his followers use to refer to the Muslims that live in Myanmar, in essence the Rohingyas.
His story also highlights the sociopolitical issues the country faces nowadays, which could be summarized in a sequence in the film that shows policemen under orders from the military regime that governs the country, attacking Buddhist monks as they are in the middle of a racist demonstration against the Muslims.
Furthermore, the documentary presents his organization and its spread and hate of lies through every mean possible, including books, DVDs and particularly his speeches, while highlighting the fact that the size of the various “conventions” they hold must receive some kind of shady financing from the rich of the country.
The thoroughness of the portrait Schroeder creates is equaled by the cinematic artistry of the film, particularly the exceptional editing of Nelly Quettier, who connects the plethora of different kinds of footage in a way that retains interest for the whole of the 100 minutes of the documentary and implements a rather fast pace that also helps in that regard. The voice of Maria de Medeiros, who mostly narrates actual Buddhist teachings throughout the documentary, adds a note of magical realism that also suits the overall aesthetics of the productiom
The amount of all the aforementioned elements in “Venerable W” succeed in depicting the true sociopath (psychopath if you prefer) that Ashin Wirathu is, largely explaining a significant part of the issues Myanmar faces at the moment, while giving a definite answer to the question used for the film’s promotion, “Can a Buddhist be evil?”.
