The Venerable W.

2017

Action / Documentary

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 100% · 13 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 100%
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 661 661

buddhism buddhist monk racism docudrama islamophobia social documentary

Plot summary

A view of the religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhist through the portrait of the Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar.

Director

Barbet Schroeder Photo
Barbet Schroeder

Top cast

Maria de Medeiros Photo
Maria de Medeiros as Little Buddhist Voice
Carlos Sardiña-Galache Photo
Carlos Sardiña-Galache as Self - Spanish Journalist
Abdul Rasheed Photo
Abdul Rasheed as Self
Yanghee Lee Photo
Yanghee Lee as Self - UN special rapporteur
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
917.19 MB
1280*694
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds ...
1.84 GB
1920*1040
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by rick_7

It's important, but it's not a great film

A pretty good documentary from Barbet Schroeder − a former Éric Rohmer collaborator who now makes factual films about awful people − dealing with Ashin Wirathu, the world's naughtiest baby. Oh, OK, he's a Buddhist hate preacher. Who's eaten quite enough alms, by the looks of him.It's more a potted history of the path to genocide − with a bit of access and some intelligently-compiled raw footage shot by others − than an in-depth portrait of its subject, though it's an important story and a timely primer on an urgent humanitarian crisis.As a film, it might be more effective if it had taken the route of its trailer, which makes the Errol Morris-like decision to unveil The Venerable W's toxic Islamophobia at the midway point, rather than leading with it.In the screening, a woman behind me tutted at everything from fascist rhetoric to burning bodies, as if otherwise we'd think that she was endorsing the behaviour in the film.
Reviewed by mquenonex 7 / 10

One pointed view

This is a good documentary, well made and interesting to watch.However The Venerable W. has only one view point which is made up from the basic left wing ideas. Somehow these people suffer from naive approach to the cultural politics. To name one person as evil, is always a misstep since the world is never that simple.I really would like to see a documentary about the Muslim hate towards Christianity and other religions, but this subject matter is just too hard for these documentaries to approach. So they rather take an easy path. This documentary is all about going through that lane.
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