The Importance of Being Mlabri (2007)

• 80%
• 2007
• Documentary
• Signe Byrge Sørensen
• Janus Billeskov Jansen

There are only 320 Mlabri people left on this planet. They used to live as hunters and gatherers in Northern Thailand. Now the jungle has gone and over the last generation the Mlabri have begun to settle. They scrape out a meagre existence working as day-labourers. This is a decisive moment in Mlabri history. The first children are getting ready to leave their parents to go to boarding school in town. The parents fear that the ground will split. What will happen to Mlabri language and culture? Will the children come back? Will the start to marry outsiders? Right now everyone in the Mlabri community face the crucial questions: How does one adapt to a world full of Outsiders? How does one integrate without disappearing? A film about the Mlabri, told by themselves, in their own language.