Military Rule May Be Over, But Myanmar’s Film Industry Remains in a Tawdry Time Warp

When Khun Lwici, the secretary of a literary and cultural committee set up by Myanmar’s Kayan ethnic group, came across a movie called Aung Padin Inn Padaung, he was incensed.

In the movie, a woman from a Kayan community known as the Padaung is depicted next to a giraffe like a zoo animal. (Padaung women are famous for elongating their necks with brass rings.) In another scene, a Padaung woman is fed a banana pushed toward her on a stick.