Beyond Rangoon (1995)

Directed by

John Boorman

Genre

drama film

Country

United Kingdom, United States

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

R

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 85 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An American tourist in 1988 Burma unintentionally gets drawn into student protests against a military dictatorship. She joins a student leader to witness the regime's brutality and tries to escape the country.

tensesuspensefulseriousgrittyurgentharrowingbleakvisceral

What happens

Beyond Rangoon is a 1995 American biographical drama thriller film directed by John Boorman about Laura Bowman (played by Patricia Arquette), an American tourist who vacations in the country of Burma (now known as Myanmar) in 1988, the year in which the 8888 Uprising takes place. Though a work of fiction, it was inspired by real people and real events. The film was mostly filmed in Malaysia. Bowman joins, albeit initially unintentionally, political rallies with university students protesting for democracy, and travels with the student leader U Aung Ko throughout Burma. There, they see the brutality of the military dictatorship of the Ne Win Regime and attempt to escape to Thailand. The film was an official selection at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. The film may have had an impact beyond movie screens, however. Only weeks into its European run, the Burmese military junta freed Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (depicted in the film) after several years under strict house arrest. The celebrated democracy leader thanked the filmmakers in her first interview with the BBC. Suu Kyi was re-arrested a few years later, but Beyond Rangoon had already helped raise world attention on a previously "invisible" tragedy: the massacres of 1988 and the cruelty of her country's military rulers. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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