VOA标准英语2012--US Secretary of State Hails Suu Kyi Film

US Secretary of State Hails Suu Kyi Film

 

Although "The Lady," a feature film on Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, opened as scheduled, no one anticipated its release would coincide with the democracy leader’s election to a seat in Burma’s parliament.

The film was welcomed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who participated in a panel discussion on Suu Kyi, along with director Luc Besson and lead actress Michelle Yeoh. 

"I did tell her in one of our recent telephone conversations she was moving from an icon¹ to a politician," said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Having made, sort of, the same journey, to some extent, I know that that's not easy. Because now you go to a parliament and you start compromising which is what democracy is all about." 

The film came out as scheduled, but no one anticipated that - almost simultaneously² - Suu Kyi would be freed from house arrest and poised³ to take a seat in Burma's parliament. That the film's release coincides with Suu Kyi's election to parliament is coincidental, according Besson.

Luc Besson's "The Lady" traces Suu Kyi's battle against oppression, recounting her bravery going back to 1947, when her pro-democracy father, Gen. Aung San, was killed by his opponents. Suu Kyi was two years old at the time.

Decades later, Suu Kyi was a housewife in England and the mother of two boys. She traveled back to Burma to tend to her ailing⁴ mother. She expected to return within a couple of weeks but never did.

Instead, Suu Kyi became a political activist⁵. In 1988, addressing a half-million people at a mass rally in Rangoon, she called for democracy. That speech, captured in Besson's film, was a challenge for lead actress Michelle Yeoh, who learned Burmese in eight months.

"That was the first time she spoke⁶ to her people to make them understand that she was her father's daughter," Yeoh says. "She is here for them and even though, yes, she married an Englishman, even though she's lived away from her country, her heart was always with them."

A year later, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest, where she remained for 15 years. 

Besson says he had to recreate Suu Kyi's life in captivity⁷ with little information. 

"She is under house arrest. You can't go in Burma, except as a tourist so it was very difficult to get the information," he says. "So we recreated the house with 200 pictures. We went on Google Earth, we measured everything, the distance from the lake, everything. So we recreated the exact same house, same curtains, same piano, same everything."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton watched the movie before meeting Suu Kyi for the first time.

"This is a terrific movie, one that I had the great privilege on watching on my way to Burma," she says. "And I particularly would like to thank the director for that honor. Movies have such a powerful voice in our culture, in every culture."

"The Lady" is also a love story. It explores Suu Kyi's physical separation from her husband, Michael Aris, who died of cancer in England while his wife was under house arrest in Burma. 

The film and Michelle Yeoh, who transforms herself into Suu Kyi, offer audiences a good look at the Nobel Laureate's unbounded sacrifice.

1 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

2 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

3 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

4 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。