The Lady – Ein geteiltes Herz (2011)

The Lady – Ein geteiltes Herz: Directed by Luc Besson. With Markus Waldow, Michelle Yeoh, David Thewlis, Jonathan Raggett. The story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma’s democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris.

“Making a commercial film about a struggle for human rights and democracy is a real struggle because most audiences want entertainment and not politics. So the producers have to find an u0026#39;angleu0026#39;. In 1987, u0026quot;A World Apartu0026quot; told the story of the fight against apartheid in South Africa but through the prism of the strain that this put on ANC activist Ruth Firstu0026#39;s relationship with her young daughter. A similar approach is used here in this account of the life of Aung San Suu Kyi, the eponymous lady and leader of the National League for Democracy in the dictatorship that has ruled Burma for most of the period since post-war independence from Britain. So it is not politics as such which is to the fore here but Suu Kyiu0026#39;s relationship with her husband, Oxford academic Michael Aris, and most especially the regimeu0026#39;s brutal refusal to allow Aris to see his wife one last time when he was dying of prostate cancer. It is a gut-wrenchingly sad tale.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMalaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh – a Bond girl in u0026quot;Tomorrow Never Diesu0026quot; and pugilist star of u0026quot;Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonu0026quot; – looks perfect in the leading role, giving a performance which, while often understated, is deeply moving. David Thewlis (various u0026quot;Harry Potteru0026quot; films and u0026quot;The Boy With The Striped Pyjamasu0026quot;) is very effective as the long-suffering husband. The exotic locations and local faces in Thailand serve the movie well and original music by the French Eric Serra plus some Mozart enhance the emotional power of the work. It is perhaps no surprise that the script for what is in essence a love story comes from a female writer – the British Rebecca Frayn – but one might not expect the identity of the director for this Anglo-French film: Luc Besson, best known for such action movies as u0026quot;Nikitau0026quot;, u0026quot;Leonu0026quot; and u0026quot;The Fifth Elementu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Ladyu0026quot; may be a bit one-dimensional and lack nuance, but it highlights a long struggle for human rights that is not sufficiently well-known and the timing of its release (I saw it in January 2012) is poignant. When filming started, Suu Kyi was still under house arrest, as she had been in total for some 15 years, but by the time the film was finished she had been released. At the end of the movie, the iron grip of the regime and the number of political prisoners are highlighted but, in the weeks around the filmu0026#39;s release, the generals instituted a series of liberalisation measures including the freeing of most political prisoners. If all this augurs an era of genuine democracy in Burma, u0026quot;The Ladyu0026quot; will be a wonderful testimony to the power of personal courage and sacrifice to effect political change.”