Aung San Suu Kyi is considered a Burmese democracy icon and she is one of the strongest living voices for freedom and justice in the world. She had been unjustly detained by the government of Myanmar (Burma) and under house arrest for 15 out of the past 21 years - beginning in the months before the 1990 general election in which her National League for Democracy party won 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament.
The film tells a poignant love story of one of the world's most prominent prisoners of conscience, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the last ten years of her marriage to the academic Dr Michael Aris, who remained in Oxford to raise both their children in her absence, while tirelessly campaigning behind the scenes to try to secure her release. When Dr Aris was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1999, the Burmese authorities refused permission for him to visit her -- offering instead that she could leave and return to Oxford - though she would never be allowed back into Burma. Suu Kyi was confronted with a terrible choice -- one whose consequences would be irrevocable; her husband and children -- or her country.
The title of the film, "The Lady," is the name by which Aung San Suu Kyi is known by the Burmese people who see her as a beacon of grace and courage against the odds, and who risk incurring the wrath of the authorities for publicly uttering her name.
(http://michelleyeoh.info)
