Today is the 26th anniversary of Burma’s 8-8-88 uprising – not as special as last year’s milestone, but still not to be missed. Having looked at The Lady on Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday in June, I turn now to Beyond Rangoon. Based on an actual story, the film was directed by John Boorman, and bears some resemblance to his 1972 masterpiece, Deliverance. It stars Patricia Arquette, had Kyaw Win and Alan Clements as special advisers, and dates from 1995.

The weakest parts of the movie come near the start. In a distorted history of Burma’s 1988 uprising (something this film shares with The Lady), American protagonist Laura Bowman (Arquette) wakes to find Rangoon’s dark streets filled with people waving Aung San and Aung San Suu Kyi banners. Out of the night steps a simpering Suu Kyi (Adelle Lutz with none of the depth or presence of Michelle Yeoh). In her first and sole scene, she faces down a phalanx of armed soldiers as if it were nothing more than a student stunt. A little later, Bowman buys a bird and releases it into the air, only to find it flutter quickly back to captivity. Cue heavy symbolism from prospective tour guide Aung Ko (playing himself): “All they know is the cage.”

Thereafter the movie gets considerably better as Bowman, lacking proper documents and abandoned by her unnerved fellow travelers, joins Aung Ko to negotiate a dangerous escape to the Thai-Burma border. True, the central plains of Burma look remarkably hilly – but at a time of extreme isolation it clearly was not possible to film in-country. On the plus side, a very good tale of private and public grief unfolds. The 1974 student revolt is mentioned, government troops dutifully massacre peaceful demonstrators in downtown Rangoon, and palpable fear pervades the nation. In a voiceover from after Beijing’s later clampdown on democracy protesters, Bowman makes an important point. “What the Chinese did in Tiananmen Square was televised. But Burma wasn’t. So for most of the world, it just didn’t happen.”

Some 20 years on, I think it’s fair to say Beyond Rangoon is largely forgotten. For at least two reasons, that is regrettable. One is that it fills an important gap – can we really afford to overlook one of the few major movies about Burmese politics? The other is that it is an excellent film – can we really allow such good work to go unheeded? Fortunately, the movie can easily be found on YouTube (view count: 250,000), and is well worth downloading.