Love’s Labour

In Goa,both Yeoh and Besson were clad in T-shirts with the Burmese leader’s face and slogans supporting her cause printed on them. When they spoke,it was easy to believe that Suu Kyi is an inspirational figure for them. “We don’t have a political agenda. Our job is to wake up people from the emotional point of view,” said the director of films such as Leon and La Femme Nikita.

The movie,which has been a passion project for them,had sprung up many challenges. Much before Besson started filming The Lady,he visited Burma as a tourist with his high definition digital camera. Some of the recordings he did then have made it to the movie while an aerial shot of Burma’s largest prison was recreated using 3D technology after getting its impression from Google Earth.

Through this film,Besson,famous for his strong,heroine-centric and action movies,wanted to show the strength of Suu Kyi. She was separated from her forever supportive husband since 1988. Even when he was dying in England in 1999 of prostate cancer,she was not allowed to visit him. “It is unbelievable. A woman who weighs 50 kilos,has the strength to counter the might of 3,00,000 military personnel. I wanted to discover how she manages to do this,” says Besson.

Besson also takes the responsibility of the film,whose script was written by Rebecca Frayn. “We had informed her from the beginning about our project. However,Dow Suu never read the script nor she asked for it.”

The making of The Lady remains one of most memorable phases of both Yeoh and Besson’s life. “This is an experience that will stay on with us,” they confess.