GuwahatiAn anti-war documentary from the ethnic conflict-scarred Manipur is set to be screened at the ongoing 19th Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) on Saturday (June 20, 2026).The 19th edition of the seven-day MIFF, South Asia’s oldest and largest festival dedicated to documentary, short fiction, and animation films, ends on Sunday (June 21, 2026).Manipuri filmmaker Borun Thokchom’s “Battlefield”, an 80-minute documentary that revisits the battles of Imphal and Kohima during World War II, took 13 years to complete. Another film from Manipur, Trishul Yumnam and Yaso Sharma’s 15-minute animation “Story of a Forest”, has also made it to MIFF’s international competition.Present-day Manipur and Nagaland were theatres of World War II in 1944. Fought between the Allied forces and the Imperial Japanese Army alongside Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, the battles named after the State capitals are considered a turning point in the war in Asia.
A scene from Manipuri filmmaker Borun Thokchom’s “Battlefield”, which focuses on the continued impact of World War II in Manipur and Nagaland.
Locals, however, continue to feel the impact of the battles.“World War II turned Manipur into a frontline battlefield. Villages were bombed, people were displaced, and locals watched big foreign armies fight for their own freedom. That experience gave people new ideas about self-rule and nationhood,” Mr. Thokchom told The Hindu.“Soon after the war, Manipur was merged with India. The destruction caused by the war and that forced merger left behind a deep anger, and that anger grew into the ethnic and separatist movements that have lasted ever since,” he said, adding that the “resistance movement” in the State initially used arms left behind from World War II. “Battlefield” was almost complete when the ethnic violence between the Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities erupted in Manipur on May 3, 2023. It eventually qualified for MIFF 2026, which sought films completed between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
