When DCA was asked to programme a film for the 2012 Dundee Women’s Festival we were delighted to have an opportunity to include The Lady in our programme. Although the film comes from an unlikely source (French filmmaker Luc Besson, best known for his explosive action films) it is a sensitive and moving portrait of one of the most important political figures of our time.

In 1988, as her mother’s health declined, Aung San Suu Kyi returned to her native Burma from Oxford, where she had lived for many years. The country was in turmoil as Burma’s military leader, General Ne Win, had stepped down. The people quickly filled the streets of Naypyidaw to demand democratic reform. As the demonstrations were suppressed and protestors beaten in broad daylight, the modest Suu Kyi, whose father had been killed in the fight for Burmese Independence, soon found herself at the centre of a campaign for political freedom. Although her party, the National League for Democracy, won the election in 1980, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest by the military junta and remained a prisoner for most of the next fifteen years.

Filmed largely on location, The Lady is full of lush colour and culture. But at the heart of film is a story of incredible courage shown by Suu Kyi (eloquently played by Michelle Yeoh) and her English husband Michael Aris (David Thewlis), whose unwavering support and campaigning for her cause in the West is an example of true partnership rarely seen on screen. Epic in scope, The Lady is ultimately a very personal story of how one woman’s vision and determination changed the world.