In 1988, 3000 people were massacred on the streets in broad daylight, during peaceful demonstrations to protest the country's conditions of endemic poverty. Two years later, after the junta's resounding electoral defeat, the army forcefully detained and imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, whose democratic victory had been supported by 88% of Burmese voters. Ever since, the noose has tightened around the general population, and ethnic minorities in particular, some of whom are still waging civil war against the army, and who are victims of severe extortion.

Most of the country is off-limits to foreigners. The military junta has much to conceal, particularly the 'genocide' it wages against ethnic minorities in the east. Villages have been ransacked and burned, women systematically raped, and populations forcefully relocated in army- controlled work-camps. Still, hundreds of thousands have chosen to resist, and have fled to live hidden in the jungle rather than to submit to the army's tyranny. These villagers are supported by militants living in exile, who have regrouped in clandestine resistance networks to fight the Burmese regime. The people of Burma, both inside and outside the country, are united in their struggle to put an end to the brutal dictatorship.

Director's Note

The nation of Burma is hermetically sealed off, ruled by one of the world's worst dictatorships, along with that of North Korea. For decades, whatever occurs in this country is shrouded in secrecy and censorship, under threat of terror at the hands of informers. Behind this imposed silence lurks a caste of barbaric generals who continue violating the rights of the Burmese people with total impunity.

In 1999, while on our first 'legal' trip to Burma, we traversed the country from North to South to witness, firsthand, the brutal repression of Burmese citizens. Ten years later, we decided to return, this time in secret, to visit forbidden regions of the country where, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, heinous crimes are being committed by the military regime.

It took us months in the field at the Thai border to convince a humanitarian agency to take us to meet displaced people hiding in the Burmese interior to protect themselves against the soldiers' exactions. Since civil war still wages in this forbidden zone, we undertook our perilous clandestine journey to the heart of the Karen State with an escort of Karen rebels. In its attempt to wipe out ethnic minorities, in 2009 the Burmese army tragically tightened its hold on the local population, specifically targeting the Karen people. The forest riddled with land mines serves as refuge for peasants fleeing slavery, forced relocation, rape and murder. Their testimony, which we heard deep in the Burmese jungle, leaves no doubt as to the genocide being directed against them. But we also discovered their steely determination to fight for freedom and democracy. Their struggle is that shared by all Burmese people, both inside the country and those living in exile who form the secret resistance network. We were able to penetrate this underground movement of political and humanitarian activists, despite the anonymity required to insure the security of some of our collaborators. Our film is intended to break the silence enshrouding an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, in order to show how a desperate people manages to summon the courage to resist, in the hope of freeing themselves from the yoke of oppression.