Set in 1988, "BEYOND RANGOON" takes us to the little-known nation of Burma, a region once recognized as the wealthiest and most ravishing in all of Asia but which, by this point in time, had all but gone up in flames. Following more than two decades of ruinous economic policies and isolationist politics enforced by a brutally repressive military regime, the people's need for freedom and democracy suddenly exploded into a nationwide expression of outrage. At first, hundreds, then thousands, of people took to the streets to peacefully protest government oppression. These demonstrations, mounted largely by students and Buddhist monks, were met by fascist violence and terror designed to silence Burma's pro-democracy movement forever.
At the forefront of these demonstrations stood Aung San Suu Kyi, a pacifist dissident who became a symbol of her country's noble struggle. As she and her comrades faced up to soldiers and protested unspeakable atrocities, only occasional reports of the abusive civil rights violations (which included forced relocations, random executions, and literal enslavement of private citizens) would surface in the West. International media was expelled from Burma, effectively resulting in a complete isolation of the country from the rest of the world. With no one watching, the Burmese government waged a horrific war on its own people.
It is against this canvas that Boorman has set "BEYOND RANGOON." In a career that has already taken him to such far-flung and physically taxing locations as the remote island of Palau ("Hell in the Pacific"), the turbulent rivers of Georgia ("Deliverance"), and the dense Amazon jungle ("The Emerald Forest"), "BEYOND RANGOON" is arguably his most ambitious project to date.
Assembling a crew of technicians who, among them, have collaborated on such location-driven films as "Gorillas In The Mist," "The Killing Fields," "Raiders Of The Lost Ark," ""The Year of Living Dangerously,"" "The Mosquito Coast," and, most notably, "Lawrence Of Arabia" and "The Bridge On The River Kwai," Boorman created a series of hardships for his team that mirror the challenges encountered by his characters, integrating these obstacles into the very fabric of his film. By placing himself and his company in circumstances of actual physical risk, the pressure and energy expended become a palpable element in the film. The result, in "BEYOND RANGOON," was a motion picture experience as multi-layered as Burma itself, a highly-charged adventure set in an exotic country that is at once beautiful and mysterious, tranquil and terrifying.
For most audiences to whom Burma is still an uncharted territory, Laura Bowman (Patricia Arquette) serves as our eyes and ears -- an uninitiated, intentionally detached observer whose introduction to this country parallels our own. Just as Laura embarks upon an "official" tour of Rangoon, so does the viewer. And when she undertakes an "unofficial" tour, and ventures "BEYOND RANGOON" into the war torn countryside, the conflict and injustice long hidden from her -- and the majority of the western world -- is shockingly brought to life.
