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CINEMA______________________________________________
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Set high among the limestone crags and bamboo thickets of Thailand’s northern border with Burma, a Buddhist monk is waging a unique battle to save the children here from the curse of drugs and corruption.
Thailand has among the highest level of drug abuse in the world, and for years the ‘Golden Triangle’ has been a world centre for the supply of opium and high-grade heroin. This border region between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos is one of the most dangerous and inhospitable regions in the world. The activities of the drug lords, combined with the effects of government anti-drug campaigns, have left hundreds dead in the region and thousands of children homeless, abandoned to their fate.
Yet in this brutal world lies an oasis of peace, the monastery of The Golden Horse, home to Phra Khru Ba or ‘The Tiger Monk’ as he is better known. Once a soldier and champion Thai boxer, Phra Khru Ba now devotes his life to the teachings of the Buddha.
Armed only with his deep-rooted faith and skills as a master Thai boxer, this fearless monk now rescues abandoned children and brings new hope to the surrounding hill tribe villages.
Poisoned, bombed and attacked numerous times by drug lords he opposes, Phra Khru Ba has spent 12 years slowly building up the trust and respect of the surrounding communities.
Travelling on horseback, he goes where the military cannot tread, and is welcomed where others are driven back. His relentless efforts to motivate farmers to grow vegetables instead of the notorious opium poppy have hindered activities of drug lords and local gangs, resulting in various attempts on his life.
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There are some 33,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand but none like the monastery of the Golden Horse. Looking more like a ranch than a typical Thai temple, the monastery resounds with the neighing of some 60 horses and the cries and pounding drumbeats accompanying training sessions of Muay Thai.
Here ‘father’ Khru Ba cares for his young charges together with ‘mother’ Mae Ead, a dynamic Buddhist nun who helps maintain the organic atmosphere of ‘Buddhist-style disciplined love’ that pervades the monastery. Many of the children here are orphans or have been abandoned to their fate by parents who are either heavily addicted or imprisoned.
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As part of their daily activities — the novices rise at 04:00 AM and meditate until dawn — the boys are also given special responsibility of caring for the horses, each being assigned one to feed, groom and ride. This brings a sense of duty and pride, and the bond developed between child and animal only enhances the atmosphere of love, awareness and self-respect.
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Cameras for the Invisibles
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On July 1, 2005, Karel Glastra van Loon, one of the Netherlands’ most acclaimed authors, died tragically of a brain tumour. Two and a half years earlier, Karel and his young family had spent 3 months in the small frontier town of Mae Sot, on Thailand’s western border with Burma, researching what turned out to be, his last novel, ‘The Invisible Ones’.
The novel was the first in a project initiated by the Netherlands Refugee Foundation to link Dutch writers with forgotten refugee groups. And although Karel managed to finish his book before he died, his further plans to provide refugees with digital cameras were left unrealised.
In March 2008, Karin returns to Mae Sot determined to realise Karel’s plan. Along the way she retraces the steps he took researching ‘The Invisible Ones’. The film weaves these emotional scenes, together with radio broadcasts recorded by Karel during his stay, and passages from his book, to provide a powerful insight into the complex issues facing the Burmese people.
The generals who rule Burma have gone to great pains to close off their country from the prying eyes of the world. The challenge now is to give ordinary people the tools with which to make ‘the invisible ones’ visible.
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Karel called the novel he wrote from his experiences on the Thai-Burma border, The Invisible Ones (De Onzichtbaren). Brought together from a collage of stories and people he met, it’s a moving tale of a provincial lawyer, who despite his efforts to avoid confrontation, falls foul of the oppressive military regime. His experiences show the intimidation and violence suffered by those who come to the attention of the junta and the deprivations of life as a refugee over the border in Thailand. The novel is a powerful blend of the personal, the political and the mythical and puts a human face on the suffering perpetrated by one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Although Karel managed to finish his book before he died, his further plans to help the Burmese refugees were left unrealised.
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Now with the publication of the English translation, Karel’s wife Karin has vowed to continue where he left off.
The film, The Invisible Ones Revisited, follows Karin’s return to Mae Sot, accompanied once again by Minka Nijhuis, bringing in all her knowledge and insights of the people and the country. Karin goes back in search of the characters that inspired the book, triggering from them often emotional responses. By weaving together Karin and Minka’s encounters with excerpts from Karel’s 12 recorded radio interviews, a picture emerges of the process that went into writing the book.
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But Karin has also another reason to return to Mae Sot. Using the income from the foreign language versions of the book, Karin intends to actualise a project that she and Karel had discussed before he died. The plan is to provide refugees and displaced people with access to digital cameras so that they can record their own stories in their own way. Later these would be published on a website especially set up for the purpose. The idea is quite simply, to offer the ‘invisible ones’ a chance to make themselves visible. Well aware of the technical, logistical and security challenges, Karin will use her visit to Mae Sot to evaluate the project and get feedback from the people themselves before initiating anything. Reactions from a number of activists so far however appear to be positive. Karin’s hope is that the project will provide inspiration and a lifeline for individuals, who, in turn, by being able to tell their own stories, can begin to act as a force for change in Burma. Despite severe restrictions online, the Burmese authorities are increasingly losing the battle to control the Internet. When the government blocked communication programs like Gmail and Gtalk in June this year, it took just two weeks before cyber-dissidents had learnt how to circumvent the restrictions. Increasingly, the world-wide-web is undermining the junta’s ability to control information, and that has long been a cornerstone of their control on the people.
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contribute
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Netherlands Refugee Foundation (Stichting Vluchteling)
Stichting Vluchteling, Netherlands Refugee Foundation, was founded in the Netherlands in 1976 as a national and independent private organisation, with the aim to promote public awareness among the Dutch population about the plight of refugees worldwide and to raise funds for assisting refugees. The mandate covers support for refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees. The foundation is not involved with providing assistance to refugees in the Netherlands. Stichting Vluchteling does not implement assistance programs, but acts as a funding partner for both international and local NGOs that are operational in refugee situations all over the world.
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The International Rescue Committee serves thousands of refugees and other uprooted peoples from Burma, who began crossing into Thailand in large numbers in 1984. Currently, more than 500,000 Burmese are internally displaced persons (IDPs) within eastern Burma, while another 154,000 are living in nine refugee camps in western Thailand and at least 1.5 million are dispersed along the border areas. More info
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CULTURE_______________________________
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Learn more about:
Thailand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand
Burma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma
Films on Asian culture:
San Diego Asian Film Foundation: The San Diego Asian Film Foundation (SDAFF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to upholding and sharing the diverse legacy of Asian Pacific Islanders through the media arts.
Buddhist Film Society presents and preserves Buddhist-themed and -inspired cinema of all kinds.
Global cross-cultural initiatives
Education exchange projects:
Inside Thailand combines international travel, cultural exchange, and community service in a distinctive summer program sponsored by the Cate School.
WPI’s Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) is intended to help students understand the social and global contexts for their careers as scientists and technologists.
Health project:
The PTN Unit conducts state-of-the-art preventative interventions to slow the acquisition and transmission of HIV infection in Southeast Asia. One of the participants is Johns Hopkins University.
Art project:
The Heinrich Boell Foundation's Southeast Asia Regional Office promotes Arts, Culture and Tradition of Myanmar/Burma by supporting contemporary Myanmar artists and writers in their creative work both inside and outside of Myanmar.
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CONNECT_____________________________________________
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Contact filmmakers and film participants
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FILMMAKERS
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FILM PARTICIPANTS
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Support the Children
An essential part of making this film, for the film makers, is to raise awareness and continued funding for housing and education for the children depicted in the film.
Abbot Phra Kru Ba is planning to expand the new school for the children in the monastery to enable more children to study.
Because Abbot Kru Ba and Khun Mae Ead (The principals of the monastery) and the children of the Golden Horse Temple are totally dependent on outside contributions as their only income, we can all help in giving financial support for this project.
EMS FILMS has individually dedicated a percentage of the film's world wide-revenue's to support the construction of the new school and sustained social work of the principals of The Golden Horse Temple and their community of orphans.
Information on collaborating organizations will be added soon on this site.
You can help by supporting the film!
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