Icarus Films will be teaming up with France’s
premiere film distribution company, Distrib Films, for the domestic DVD debut
of Oscar-nominated director Barbet Schroeder’s The
Venerable W. on May 19.
This is the third entry in what Schroeder (who was
nominated Best Director for Reversal of Fortune) has
called his “trilogy of evil” film series.
It began with the 1974 (1976 domestically) documentary, General
Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait,
which was filmed — amazingly enough — at the height of this powers (before Entebbe).
At the time of the filming, Idi Amin had
been accused of murdering somewhere north of 100,000 of his own citizens and
was widely viewed as being unstable … nevertheless, Schroeder was given full
access and got out alive.
The next in the “trilogy of evil” series was the
2007 documentary, Terror’s Advocate,
which chronicled the life of lawyer Jacques Vergès, whose clients over the
years have included the likes of Klaus Barbie and Carlos the Jackal.
Now comes The
Venerable W., a look at Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist
monk in Myanmar, who preaches against the country’s Muslim population.
In a country run by the National League for
Democracy (NLD) since 1990 — a one-party dictatorship — Wirathu’s message of
intolerance gives the population something to focus on, a boogieman, so to
speak.
Schroder deftly blends interview sessions with Wirathu
with amateur footage to paint a picture of government sponsored “ethnic
cleansing” in the name of the peaceful and enlightened religion of Buddhism. Chilling.
The Venerable W. is
presented in French, Burmese and English, with English subtitles were
appropriate.
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