21 Nov 2012
Director: Luc Besson
France, UK
2011
132 min
Action thriller veteran Luc Besson may not be the obvious choice of director for the story of Aung San Suu Kyi (played with understated panache by Michelle Yeoh), the woman at the core of Burma’s democracy movement.
Nonetheless the Frenchman brings a deft touch to this poignant and moving story as it focuses less on the politics than on the leader of the National League for Democracy herself, and particularly on her relationship with her husband Michael Aris (David Thewlis). This epic tale of love and sacrifice is all the more staggering because it is a true – and very current – story.