Tommaso Cotronei learnt about the revolution in Myanmar while attending
a film festival in Dhaka. What followed was months of research, a trip to Myanmar, a two-month-long stay and a film.
The 60-year-old filmmaker, whose documentary Myanmar Resistance was premiered at the 12th edition of Kolkata People’s Film Festival (KPFF) in January, tells The Telegraph in an email, “I was born in a poor family in southern Italy. I try to portray misfortune and poverty. I find in them echoes of my own childhood and youth.”
In the course of his career, Cotronei has travelled to various conflict zones — Nigeria, Congo,
Somalia, Paraguay, Lebanon. The focus of Myanmar Resistance is the country’s Gen Z.
Those aged between 15 and 35 make up 33 per cent of Myanmar’s population of 60 million. Between 2015 and 2021, they had a taste of freedom and were also briefly connected to the rest of the world. Then came the coup and many turned into guerrilla warriors, taking refuge in the forests of the Chin state of western Myanmar, sacrificing all comforts of life with the sole aim of overthrowing the military dictatorship. Many of them are educated, tech-savvy urban youth who have transitioned from peaceful social-media-driven protests to armed resistance.
The past three years, KPFF has been offering a platform to filmmakers from Myanmar to tell these stories of resistance. Dwaipayan Banerjee, festival co-organiser, says, “A whole generation has taken up arms, thousands died after the junta seized power, yet we don’t know much about what’s happening in our neighbouring country.”
Journey of a Bird, screened at KPFF in 2023, is by an anonymous bunch of teenagers. Comrade Poopy, screened in 2025, is about a travel blogger and her husband. The couple flee to the jungle following the coup. The wife finds comfort in a cat called Poopy, while the husband joins the resistance. The director, who goes by the initial M, let Banerjee interview him but kept his face covered. He said filmmakers like him are imprisoned and even killed for making films on the resistance movement.
This year, the other entry from Myanmar at KPFF was The Waiting Room. A film about youth fleeing the country to escape conscription.
Cotronei reached Saiha on the Indo-Myanmar border from Aizawl in Mizoram after a 13-hour van ride. He says, “I established links with the Myanmarese community and crossed into the Chin region.” There, he spent time in the jungles. Cotronei’s film doesn’t show footage of airstrikes or simulated attacks; instead, he focusses on the day-to-day life of the guerrillas and villagers. You see young people dressed in battle fatigues sorting bullets and loading guns before falling asleep.
Banerjee says, “Cotronei’s film is a classic documentary. There is no voiceover, no commentary, just a raw depiction of the scenario.”
The rebels readily agreed to share their stories? Says Cotronei, “They understood I’m not a typical voyeur-filmmaker.” He adds, “They hope and survive with the help of the local people and antiquated weaponry from the US and other regions. China arms the coup plotters and the US arms the guerrillas, powerful nations waging war in others’ homes. It is the same everywhere.”