The Lady 2011

     Aung San Suu Kyi’s General father was killed by a military coup when she was very young in Burma.  Years later she lives in Britain with her husband Michael Aris and her two young boys.  She receives a phone call that her mother has had a stroke.  She quickly leaves for Burma to be by her mother’s side at the hospital.  There are many demonstrations by students and many are injured.  She sees students running to the hospital and she sees soldiers enter the hospital to kill some of them.  A small delegation requests Suu remain in the country and help them with their struggle for democracy.

     I have seen many news stories about Suu but I didn’t know the full extent of her story or anything about her husband and boys.  She was a prisoner in her home and also in the country.  If she left to go to her family, she would not be allowed to return.  She was a strong figure representing freedom by making many sacrifices.  4* (I really liked this movie) 

132 min, Bio directed by Luc Besson and written by Rebecca Frayn with Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, Jonathan Raggett, Jonanthan Woodhouse, Susan Wooldridge, Benedict Wong, Markus Waldow, Htun Lin, Agga Poechit, Donatienne Dupont, Phoe Zaw, Marian Yu, May, Ko Ko Win Aung, Thein Win.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10 with 10,003 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 36% with 72 critics 62% audience with 6,695 reviews, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 311 reviews, Letterboxd 3.1* out of 5*, Metacritic 43 out of 100 with 21 critics reviews (positive 5, mixed 13, negative 3), 6.5 out of 10 with 19 user scores (positive 13, mixed 5, negative 1), Roger Ebert 2 1/2*, boston.com 2* Ty Burr, The Telegraph 2* out of 5* Robbie Collin. 

Special Note:  The screen play was written over a period of three years.  Interviews with key figures in Aung San Suu Kyi’s entourage enabled her to reconstruct her story.  This move was filmed in Bangkok and the working title was “Dans la Lumiere”, Into the Light.  Suu Kyi had a controversial reign as State Counsellor of Myanmar and she defended the Rohingya genocide.  Luc Besson and Rebecca Frayn said they regretted making this film?  Suu Kyi also appeared at The Hague in 2019 and she publicly disputed the accusations of genocide against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.  Michelle Yeoh studied 200 hours of video of Suu Kyi and she learned Burmese for her role.  In June 2011, Michelle Yeoh landed in Rangoon Airport in Burma and she was deported the same day.  The reason given was that she was blacklisted.