31 January 2018 FCCT Burma King Documentary

We Were Kings
Thailand premier of documentary about Myanmar's royal family
Wednesday 31 January, 7pm

In 1885, a small British expeditionary force invaded Upper Burma and deposed King Thibaw. He was the last king of the Konbaung dynasty and the last ruling Burmese monarch in a history dating back thousands of years. Thibaw, Queen Supayalat, and other members of the royal family were unceremoniously deported from their palace in Mandalay into exile in Ratnagiri, to be housed in a remote, rundown colonial mansion along India's endless west coast. Thibaw died there in 1916, and was interred in India. Supayalat died in 1925 in Rangoon (Yangon today), where she is entombed. The Burmese royal family in exile acquired an Indian branch, but essentially vanished from sight during the long struggle for independence from Britain, the trauma of the World War II and Japanese occupation, and military dictatorship for much of the post-independence period after 1948. After a century of silence, descendants of the lost royal family have resurfaced, not to reclaim a lost throne but as patriots seeking to correct and clarify some of the wrongs of a painful history. Beautifully filmed through three years of seismic change in modern Myanmar, this is the story of a family and a country still emerging from darkness.

Levison Wood -- an award-winning filmmaker, author and explorer, praised the film: "We Were Kings is a must-see film for anyone who wants to understand Burma today. After years on the ground, [Alex] Bescoby gives a unique insight into a country so often in the headlines, but that we Brits really know very little about. Britain and Burma have an amazing shared history, and this film tells it with a subtlety and humour that will take you by surprise.”

The FCCT hosted the Bangkok premier of We Were Kings on January 31, and welcomed U Soe Win, King Thibaw's great grandson, and Alex Bescoby, the film's maker, to speak to the audience. For copyright reasons the film itself has been edited out of this recording of the evening.