PRODUCTION STATEMENT

A character with an extraordinary destiny, a talented rapper committed to his country's path to democracy after years of military dictatorship, Zayar Thaw was imprisoned for three years from 2008 to 2011. He was elected to the Burmese parliament in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 under the banner of the party formed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, before being executed in July 2022.

It is through his tragic fate that we have decided to tell the story of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Burma is regularly in the international spotlight, most recently for its violent repression of the Karen and Rohingya people, described as genocide by the UN, Washington and the European Community. Despite a 10-year democratic interlude, Burma's military junta, which has been in power since the end of the Second World War, has been unable to loosen its grip on the country, which it has been steadily losing since the 1980s. Its attempts to regain power invariably involve coups d'état and the elimination of opponents.

Zayar Thaw represented a great danger to the power-hungry military. A committed human rights activist whose freedom of expression is second nature to him, the rapper-deputy uses art as one of man's preferred means of expressing his ideas.

Acid Burma is the real and universal story of those people who mark out history and choose to carry Freedom above their personal destiny. A quest for the absolute and the immaterial that transforms the human condition into that of hero, symbol and immortal. Thomas Dandois' film is an intense documentary that takes us to Southeast Asia. The people he meets are Zayar Thaw's fellow travelers, those who managed to escape the military roundup in 2021. They are refugees in a neighboring country to Myanmar, in hiding, living under false identities. Extremely distrustful, they testify openly to help democracy advance in their beloved homeland.

We have access to unpublished archives that the protagonists themselves have entrusted to us, to help raise awareness of the Burmese situation.

SYNOPSIS

He was an emblematic figure of the Burmese resistance, a voice too free for the military to silence forever. On July 23, 2022, Phyo Zeyar Thaw was executed by hanging in Myanmar's Insein prison. The news triggered an international outcry. Zeyar Thaw was a 41-year-old rap and political star. Musician, activist, political prisoner, elected member of parliament, he had lived many careers. His life had made him a Burmese legend. His death made him a universal icon of freedom.

DIRECTOR

Thomas Dandois is a filmmaker and reporter. A Franco-British bi-national, he is best known for having shot and directed documentaries all over the world.

His filmography comprises some thirty prestigious films, including the Daesh Deserters trilogy, Asbestos, the Never-Ending Story, and Gaza, the Great Escape, which won the Grand Prix at FIGRA in 2016 and was broadcast on Arte, and more than 20 26-minute documentaries for Arte reportage.

Also a writer, Thomas has published several articles, notably in the prestigious Revue XXI magazine, and co-written several comic strips