Prisoners of a White God (2008)

Original title

Zajatci bílého boha

Directed by

Steve Lichtag

Genre

documentary film, drama film

Country

Czech Republic

Runtime

52 min

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Czech researcher travels to the highlands of Thailand and Laos to document crimes committed against the Akha people by Christian missionaries. The film reveals how missionary activities allegedly involve land theft, forced relocation, and the trafficking of children into labor and sex work. It contrasts the missionaries' clean public image with the exploitation hidden behind their work.

soberinginvestigativealarmingdeliberateeye-openingunsettlingdisturbingfactualsolemn

What happens

Prisoners of a White God (Czech: Zajatci Bílého Boha) is a Czech documentary film about the Akha people, produced and distributed by Twin Star in September 2008. The documentary is about a Czech researcher, Tomáš Ryška, who goes to the Thai and Laotian mountains in order to search and document the causes of wrongdoing and violence done to the indigenous peoples and their children by Christian missionaries. According to the film, the missionaries' altruistic intentions of converting these indigenous people to Christianity hide the human rights violations of land theft, forced relocation, cultural genocide and imposition of power with a racist view on their society. The crimes which the Christian missionaries are accused of include kidnapping of children from their villages to work in tea plantations and the selling of children into the sex trade. The documentary contrasts the apparent wealth and cleanliness of the missionaries with the undercover child trafficking that they carry out. One missionary is seen expressing regret over the revelation of this reality to the outside world as a threat to the continuing work of their organizations among these people. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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