One of the pleasant surprises when the Toronto International Film Festival announced their initial line-up was Luc Besson‘s The Lady. Having no previous knowledge of the project, I was glad to hear he was tackling a more interesting topic than his usual action fare. Besson has been behind many (script/story-wise) action films like Taken and Colombiana as of late but he hasn’t quite lived up to his earlier directing efforts like Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element.
His new bio-pic stars Michelle Yeoh as the activist Aung San Suu Kyi and we now have the first footage. CNN interviewed Besson and interspersed is our first look at the film. I’m quite glad Besson will be tacking this sort of drama and can’t wait to check it out. See the video below via Twitch Film.
Synopsis:
The Lady is an epic love story about how an extraordinary couple and family sacrifice their happiness at great human cost for a higher cause. This is the story of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband, Michael Aris. Despite distance, long separations, and a dangerously hostile regime, their love endures until the very end. A story of devotion and human understanding set against a background of political turmoil which continues today. The Lady also is the story of the peaceful quest of the woman who is at the core of Burma’s democracy movement.
The Lady will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September with no US distributor in line yet.