SATURDAY 7 | In April 1988, at the English home she shared with her Tibetan scholar husband Michael Aris and two young sons, Aung San Suu Kyi received an unexpected phone call from her native Burma. Khin Kyi, her mother and a former ambassador to India and Nepal, was critically ill. By December 28, Khin Kyi was dead and a new military junta had seized power, slaughtering thousands of people in the process. Faced with the extraordinary choice of continuing as an Oxford housewife or sacrificing her personal life to serve her country, Suu Kyi had returned to Rangoon. There, amid unprecedented political upheaval, the daughter of independence hero General Aung San became the de facto figurehead for the pro-democracy movement. Her destiny to become a Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident was sealed. Twenty-three years later, on the eve of historic by elections, Marc Eberle – a German filmmaker based in Phnom Penh – secured unprecedented access to ‘The Lady’ as she took the dangerous step into everyday Burmese politics. The resulting documentary, Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice, captures how Suu Kyi chose to remain imprisoned in her Rangoon home rather than rejoin her family in Oxford for fear of being banned from ever returning to Burma. And for the first time, in her own words, she offers a glimpse into the “personal regrets” she has had to endure as a result.
WHO: The face of Burmese democracy
WHAT: Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice screening, presented by filmmaker Marc Eberle
WHERE: Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd
WHEN: 7pm September 7
WHY: “People ask me about what sacrifices I’ve made. I always answer: I’ve made no sacrifices, I’ve made choices.” – Aung San Suu Kyi