First Man Who Hijacked Airplane

Part 3

"We figured it was enemy money so we took it," Saw Kyaw says with a smile. The passengers and crew were allowed back on and somehow the plane managed to take off, as the rebels slunk off into the bush.

It's a story worthy - almost - of Hollywood. But under Burma's strict censorship rules, for the last 50 years you had to do what I did and go to Saw Kyaw's house if you wanted to hear it. The generals didn't want people finding out about plucky rebels seizing government-owned planes.

But now, censorship of the printed word has been lifted and Saw Kyaw's story was published in a book last year.

The title - The World's First Hijacking - is somewhat misleading. A quick search of the internet shows there were at least four hijackings around the world before this one.

Undeterred, the final touches are now being put to a film, with the same slightly dodgy name. Cinema censorship is still alive and well here. Scripts have to be approved and then permission granted again when the film has been finished.

For the last 11 years Anthony, who goes by just one name, has been trying to make films that will get past the censors.

It's been frustrating - in the past any reference to rebel groups was an immediate no no. Even vague, sometimes imagined allusions were sniffed out.

Anthony tells me he wanted to call one of his films Don't Cry Mother, but it was vetoed as it might have been an oblique reference to pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"There was a time when we only made comedies as they made good money and we knew they'd make it past the censors," he says.

But now there are signs the film censors are catching up with the country's reforms.

Anthony's hijacking script was approved. The Burmese army even loaned them a plane and some guns for filming.