Orangutans – Orphans of the Forest

Here you find an impressing documentary about the orangutans in the ‘rehabilitation center’ in Bukit Lawang / Sumatra. It shows the destruction of the tropical rainforest by timber companies, the rescue of some orangs by a Swiss team and the new life of the charming animals in the forest around Bukit Lawang.

Pay a visit to the whole article on ‘Orangutans – Orphans of the Forest‘…

Know…

This is only a part of the richly illustrated article ‘Orangutans – Orphans of the Forest’. Read here the whole article on Orangutans – Orphans of the Forest.

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Check the list of recently published articles on a great variety of Southeast Asian themes. All of them are richly illustrated: Asienreisender

Movies: ‘The Killing Fields’

The movie tells the (true) story of Sydney Schanberg, an American journalist (New York Times) and Dith Pran, a Cambodian collegue and local guide/translator working with/for Schanberg. They witness the last weeks of the pro American Lon Nol regime and the conquest of Phnom Penh by the Khmer Rouge. Incredible atrocities occur. Phnom Penh gets three days after the conquest completely evacuated. More than two million people had to leave the megacity in an apocalyptic exodus.

While all the remaining Westerners gather in the French Embassy and manage to leave the country, Dith can not leave for he has no valid passport. As an educated man Dith has to expect his execution by the new rulers.

The hectical, thickening aggressive atmosphere is very well caught into the picture. The shown scences are very realistic and convincing.

Anyhow avoiding execution, a years long ordeal in the working camps of the Khmer Rouge starts for Dith Pran. He has continuously to claim that he were just a simple peasant, until he is finally able to escape the murderous regime over the border to Thailand.

The movie is also about a certain kind of friendship which evolved between Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran. Schanberg, above all, suffers a bad conscience for having put pressure on Dith remaining in Cambodia at a time when he could escape easily and then leaving Dith back in the hands of the savage Khmer Rouge. Back in the USA he doesn’t believe in Dith’s death, although he is cut off of all contact to him, and Dith is highly probable supposed to be executed by the communists. Dith was a very loyal worker for Schanberg, while Schanberg represents an ambitious, aggressive reporter who puts success over everything else.

A kind of real-life happy end occurs when Schanberg finally get’s message of Dith’s successful escape.

For the understanding of the film a certain knowledge of Cambodian History is required.

Click the link to read the whole and illustrated article ‘The Killing Fields‘.

Keep yourself up-to-date

Check the list of recently published articles on a great variety of Southeast Asian themes. All of them are richly illustrated: Asienreisender

Movies: City of Ghosts

The movie is a ‘film noir’, a thriller who was made mostly in Cambodia, partially in Thailand and the beginning in USA. The plot is not too interesting, but it’s nevertheless a thrilling movie. It’s particularly fascinating to watch for those who know Cambodia or are interested in the country, because much of the atmosphere of the country is caught in the picture, and that’s done very well. Parts of the movie play in Phnom Penh, others in Kep, the climax and final showdown is placed up on foggy Bokor Hill Station and in and around the old colonial Bokor Palace Hotel & Casino ruin. Matt Dillan, as the director, took time to show places in Cambodia as they really look. That gives the film a touch of a documentary as well. (…)

Click the link to read the whole and illustrated article on City of Ghosts.

Keep yourself up-to-date

Check the list of recently published articles on a great variety of Southeast Asian themes. All of them are richly illustrated: Asienreisender

Movies: Rescue Dawn

Filmmaker Werner Herzog’s second approach to the story of Dieter Dengler, a German born American bombardier (*1938 – 2001) who got shot over Laotian territory in the early Vietnam War in 1966. The movie is based on Herzog’s own documentary ‘Little Dieter needs to Fly’ (1997) and Dieter Denglers book ‘Escape from Laos’. The movie is based on a true story.

Read the whole review on Rescue Dawn…

On Censorship of Movies in Thailand

Also one should keep in mind that there exists a strict censorship in Thailand. Movies are controlled by the authorities. Many are criticized for containing ‘illegal’ content, coming in any way in conflict with ‘lese majeste’ or other Thai laws. Sometimes whole films are confiscated. So, there are many topics, Thai film makers can not deal with. Particularly when it comes to politics and to the religion. To make a political ‘correct’ movie in Thailand is an art itself. Because of that one can not expect really good movies ‘Made in Thailand’.

Just recently the new Thai Movie ‘Fahtum pandinsoong’ (border) by director Nontawat Numbenchapol on the 2010 anti-government demonstrations in Bangkok and the border conflict with Cambodia was forbidden to be played in Thailand.

The movie was shown in February at the annual Berlin film festival ‘Berlinale’ 2013.

The official reason to ban the movie was that it would threaten the national security. The Bangkok May 2010 events are a politically sensitive topic in Thailand. 91 people died, some 1,000 were injured.

The documentary is following a Thai soldier, who was serving in Bangkok in May 2010 when the so called ‘red shirts’ demonstrated over months against the government and were beaten down then by the military. In 2011 he was deployed to the Thai/Cambodian border at Preah Vihear where bloody combats happened between the Thai and the Cambodian army. The border fights in April 2011 caused 18 deaths and thousands of villagers displaced.

The border conflict is at the moment processed at the UN international Court of Justice in Deen Haag, Netherlands.

That’s just the latest example of the notorious censorship in Thailand. A great deal of promising Thai Movies who offer deeper views on social topics are censored. It’s not always so that the whole movie get’s forbidden. Often are parts of a movie banned and have to be cut out. The cutting frequently get’s so far that the whole movie doesn’t make sense then anymore.

Here you can read the whole article on ‘Thai Movies‘ including some revies…