The Guardian had posted the first stills from Luc Besson’s next project, The Lady, which tells the story of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader recently released from house arrest.
Michelle Yeoh stars alongside David Thewlis and Yeoh got the chance to meet the woman she is playing on screen, though the film is not being made with her permission, and described the experience,
The first thing we did is hug and I thought you are really skinny, man…You feel a real sense of calm when you’re with her. She’s a very striking figure. She is so proud of her culture and the best way to show it is with dignity and elegance. She has a glow and an aura about her.
Details of the film also emerged, specifically where the film begins and ends, and that is it not a traditional biopic, instead it brings a focus on a few dramatic years of the couple’s life,
The film will chart her remarkable journey from housewife bringing up her children in Oxford to taking on the power of Burma’s generals by becoming opposition leader.
It will build up to that awful choice she had to make between country and family when her husband, Michael Aris, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Besson also discusses the project, describing the woman as
She says we should have the right to decide our future, we should have the right to express ourselves. She is asking for things we all have and don’t even think about any more.
How often in history do you have a person, a woman, who never curses, never steals anything, never does anything illegal and you put her under house arrest for 24 years, it is just insane.
Here are the pictures, do click on the link to find out more about this fascinating project which is expected to finish filming in the next few weeks with an eye on a release in the second half of 2011.
