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THE MOKEN (2005)

THE MOKEN (2004) are people that lived from the sea. Once these sea gypsies, as they were called, roamed over the islands off the coast of Burma and Thailand. Now they are forced to live on the Surin islands, sixty kilometers off the Thai coast. They are forbidden to cut down trees to make canoes. That puts the Moken in a difficult position. On the one hand, they are simple nomads, who do not even know the word ‘desire’. On the other, they can no longer escape modern society. Drink and junk food supersede their traditional fish catch. At the instigation of the Thai authorities, they are developing their lives as a tourist attraction. All the Moken survived the tsunami. Before this disaster they fled to higher ground, where they are still further removed from their traditional lifestyle.

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