The Lady: Michelle Yeoh as Political Heroine Aung San Suu Kyi
The timing is perfect for a film biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Late last month Suu Kyi won a seat in Parliament and, as head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), became the leader of the opposition to the military junta that changed the country’s name to Myanmar and, for most of its 50-year rule, made the independent nation a barbarous dictatorship.
Under house arrest for most of the past two decades, Suu Kyi proved a lambent symbol of resilience within tyranny. The junta encouraged her to join her ailing husband in England; but she stayed, knowing that if she left she would never be allowed to return. As the U2 song “Walk On,” dedicated to Suu Kyi, proclaims, “You could have flown away / A singing bird in an open cage / Who will only fly, only fly for freedom.” U2’s Bono wrote in TIME: “Her quiet voice of reason makes the world look noisy, mad; it is a low mantra of grace in an age of terror.” Suu Kyi was granted her freedom in 2010 and, at 66, takes her seat in the Lower House next Monday