Exploring the life of Aung San Suu Kyi. After 15 years of house arrest in Myanmar, she was celebrated as an icon of democracy, but ten years on, she is seen by many as an international pariah.
In times of rampant populism and increasing distrust of the elite, the filmmaker accompanies the 81-year-old founder of the controversial World Economic Forum over the period of one year in his efforts to implement his leitmotif: to improve the state of the world. Can the WEF contribute to solving global problems? Or is it rather an integral part of the problem?
In this harrowing documentary the brutal regime of the military Junta in Burma is fully exposed. Through interviews with refugees, survivors and Burma's democratically elected president and Peace Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the terrifying landscape of an ongoing genocide of the ethnic minorities that flies in the face of international law comes horribly alive. Filmed surreptitiously and under constant life threatening conditions, Burma - A Human Tragedy offers a rare glimpse into the systematic human extermination that has gone pretty much ignored.
We know Aung San Suu Kyi as "a golden bird in a cage"; she is a valuable icon representing freedom and democracy of which the suppressed population of Burma project much hope for. In the West she stands out as a symbol of peace and reconciliation. She has been awarded countless prizes for her effort, among them the Nobel Peace Prize. But who is the person and woman behind it all? The Military Dictatorship has on several occasions offered her the opportunity to leave the country. But why does Aung San Suu Kyi voluntarily choose to stay in her captivity instead of going into exile? Lady of No Fear offers a strong and fascinating glimpse into Aung San Suu Kyis life and portrays some of the consequences her freedom struggle has had, not only for her, but also for her closest friends and family indeed.
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country.
