About the Documentary

Rambuai focuses attention on a period in the nation’s history that has received insufficient attention in contemporary discourse, official reports, civil society dialogues or even scholarly debates. Every 50 years a species of bamboo in the Mizo hills flowers. In the late 1950s, this phenomenon had a deadly side effect, triggering an explosion in the rat population. Hordes of rats swept through the district devouring standing crops and granaries. The villagers were hungry and desperate. At the time, the Mizo Hills was extremely isolated. Laldenga, a Mizo government officer, mobilized young people and launched a relief movement, which turned into an insurgency. At midnight on 28th February 1966, the Mizo National Front (MNF) declared independence.

Language: English and Mizo (with English subtitles)