The general at the samadhi

Our cover image this issue is of Senior General Than Shwe at Delhi’s Rajghat, videoed by filmmaker Amar Kanwar. To lead off our cover section, we present four write-ups by Kanwar – on Than Shwe himself, on the growing military connection between New Delhi and Rangoon, on the recently deceased activist Thet Win Aung and the long-dead Win Maw Oo. These pieces were originally conceived by Kanwar as part of a video installation, which was first exhibited at a Southasian film festival in Bangalore in early December.

Click on play to view "The Face" or download here

While the footage on Win Maw Oo and Thet Win Aung used images available to Kanwar, the segment on Than Shwe required clandestine filming of a general who is notorious for the distance he wants to keep from the camera. A part of the Than Shwe segment was filmed at the lobby of a New Delhi hotel, while the remaining was filmed at the cremation place of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, at Rajghat.

SOUTHASIASPHERE
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by | C K Lal

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