Prominent Myanmar Filmmaker Wyne Arrested By Military Junta After A Year On The Run

Tom Grater
·1 min read

Htun Zaw Win, who uses the professional name Wyne, has been arrested in Myanmar following a year on the run evading charges of encouraging government employees to join protests against local military rule.

AP first reported that Wyne had returned home from hiding for medical treatment, having suffered a stroke in 2019, when the military caught up with him. Deadline sources have confirmed the information.

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The news is the latest distressing incident from a brutal two-year period that has followed the local military seizing control from the democratically elected Myanmar government in a coup d’etat in February 2020.

Deadline sources said that one small positive is that Wyne reportedly has made it to prison, while other political dissenters, journalists and artists have seemingly disappeared, presumed killed, after their arrests by the military.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a non-profit that tracks the events as they unfold, estimates that more than 9,000 political prisoners have been arrested, charged or sentenced by the regime, and more than 1,500 have been killed.

Yesterday, Deadline spoke to an anonymous collective of Myanmar filmmakers who are trying to shine an international spotlight on the troubling situation through their new feature, which premieres at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Wyne began his career as a supporting actor. His breakout success was the 2011 pic Adam, Eve and Datsa, which was a local box office hit and won multiple Myanmar Motion Picture Academy Awards.

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