ADELE LUTZ portrays the real-life heroine of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, as she makes an electrifying appearance before a crowd of hundreds assembled for a pro-democracy rally in the center of Rangoon city. While she has appeared on-screen in a number of other feature films, including "Beetlejuice," "Silence Of The Lambs, and "Wall Street," the talented New Yorker works in many creative fields and is well known for her imaginative costume design for the theater and music videos, particularly those of her husband, David Byrne of Talking Heads. Lutz also has appeared in over two hundred TV commercials in Japan.
In "BEYOND RANGOON," many performers from both Burma and Malaysia had the opportunity to contribute their acting skills. Some like TIARA JACQUELINA, who portrays student San San, JIT MURAD, who portrays student Sein Htoo, JOHN CHEAH, who portrays student Min Han, MOHAMMED YUSOF ABDUL HAMID, who portrays a river trader, HANI MOHSIN BIN MOHAMMED HANAFI, who portrays a deserting soldier, RAJOLI MOHAMMED ZAIM, who portrays an ethnic Karen raft captain, and KUSWADINATH BIN, who portrays a menacing Army colonel, have already had considerable acting experience in film, theater, or television.
Others in the film, such as JOHN MINDY, who portrays a Burmese soldier, ILLIAM SAW, who portrays a machete-armed student, DR. KYAW WIN who portrays a birdman, YE MYINT, who portrays student Zaw Win, and CHO CHO MA, who portrays student Zabai, were acting for the first time in their lives, but found that, with the understanding and patient guidance of director John Boorman, they could do so with complete conviction.
For Ye Myint and Cho Cho Ma, many of the scenes and location settings in "BEYOND RANGOON" had special and haunting meaning. Both of these young performers from Burma remember all too well the horrors inflicted by Army soldiers during the years they spent desperately trying to survive in refugee camps until they could find freedom in the U.S. and thus begin new lives.
