Entertainment

DEADLY RANGOON SQUAD

IN September 2007, hun dreds of thousands of people — many of them monks — took to the streets of the Southeast Asian nation of Burma (a k a Myanmar) to demand the end of the brutal, decades-long military dictatorship.

For a while it looked as if the army might join the freedom fighters. But not only did the troops stay loyal to the junta, they followed orders to riddle unarmed protesters with bullets. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed.

The documentary “Burma VJ” documents the events, using shocking video footage shot by activists and smuggled out of the country and onto Western news channels.

Unfortunately, the “Burma VJ” director, Anders Ostergaard of Denmark, mixes the live scenes with fictional footage of one of the activists — identified only as Joshua, 27 — going about his job during the protests.

The news footage, so powerful on its own, needs no enhancement. The dramatized scenes only slow the film’s momentum.

“Burma VJ” (the VJ stands for video journalists) arrives here the same week that folk hero Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who heads the country’s opposition, has gone on trial in a Rangoon prison.

She’s accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.

vam@nypost.com

BURMA VJ

Monk see, monk die.

In English and Burmese, with subtitles. Running time: 89 minutes. Not rated (disturbing images). At Film Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue.