Laura Bowman, is getting over a family tragedy and visits Rangoon, Burma. She is a doctor, and feels trapped in her grief and depression. She no longer wants to practice medicine.

She sees a protest march led by Aung Sang Suu Kyi which changes her. She meets a guide, a former professor named U Aung Ko, who had been imprisoned for helping dissident students. They travel into the country to visit a Buddhist monastery.

Laura helps him after he is beaten. Martial law has been declared. When Laura and U Aung Ko return to the city, they witness a massacre of peaceful protesters. She escapes with the professor and joins another group of students. They make their way to the Thai border, pursued by soldiers and heavy gunfire. Many are killed but the professor is reunited with his family and Laura’s life is turned around.

Director John Boorman - Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, Hope and Glory. U.SA, 1995, 99 minutes
Cast: Patricia Arquette, U Aung Ko, Frances McDormand, Spalding Gray, Victor Slezak. Writers: Alex Lasker.

Focus

Second Sunday of Advent Year C
Baruch 5: 1-9
Philipians 1: 4-6, 8-11
Luke 3: 1-6

Laura Bowman’s stay in Rangoon is an Advent time for her. She is a woman in need of comfort who shares the longings of the people. Her journey beyond Rangoon, inspired by Aung Sung Suu Kyi, is a journey of hope toward salvation.

Today’s Gospel begins with a description of the political situation in Palestine at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. It was a time of occupation by the Romans, with Herod and his brother as the day-to-day administrators. It was a time of oppression and hardship. Yet, this was the context for hope as well as a call for repentance as the people anticipated the coming of God’s kingdom to free them from tyranny. This promise of hope is a constant theme in the Jewish scriptures.

The words of Baruch proclaim the end of mourning and the donning of the splendour of God’s glory to the people during the time of the Babylonian captivity (587-537 B.C.). To get his message of hope across, he sings a song of how a new road will be constructed, leading the exiles home.

Today’s Gospel includes a quotation from Second Isaiah that announces the triumphant arrival of the Lord again using the analogy of pathways and roads. The spirituality of Advent is one that contemplates in hope the fulfilment of God’s promises.

The film presents audiences with a desperate political situation marked by military rule. The Burmese people are hopeful, strengthened by the Buddhist spirituality of purification through suffering and endurance.

What’s The background?

The subtext of the film portrays what turned out to be a protracted experience of Advent longing and waiting for an entire nation. The movie shows her Advent journey as well as that of the professor and the students.

For Laura, her Advent journey culminates in a realisation that she has come out of herself and her loneliness to save lives. Her suffering can bear fruit in a spirituality of joy that Paul describes for the Philippians.

Compare Beyond Rangoon with other films that focus on Asian culture and recent history, such as Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet, Paradise Road, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Killing Fields. All these films are based on true stories.

For a real life example of people reaching out after a tragedy, learn about the family of Amy Biehl, an American woman who was murdered in South Africa.
What’s The Background?

Burma (formerly known as Myanmar) won independence from Britain in 1948. There was parliamentary democracy. In 1962 General Ne Win made a military coup. He became the head of a single-party socialist state.

He banned opposition parties and a free press. He had a policy of state control and a single-crop export (rice) for the next thirty years. This dismantled the country’s economy - once said to be the strongest in Asia.
There were poor harvests in the late eighties with rice shortages leading to political turmoil. In 1987 the United Nations put the economy in a “least developed” category.

The government withdrew 80% of the currency from the economy without compensation. This lead to rioting and demonstrations.

August 8, 1988 - thousands of citizens marched in Rangoon (and throughout the country) for democracy, human rights, and an end to the state stranglehold of the economy.

Police and military responded by killing 3,000 protesters over six weeks and arresting thousands more. A State Law and Order Restoration Council was given control of the country. 1989 - government change name from Burma to Myanmar as only 65% of population are Burmese.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of a popular general who lead the Burmese resistance to Japanese aggression during the Second World War. He was assassinated in 1947 when Aung San Suu Kyi was two years old.

Educated in India while her mother served as ambassador from Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi became inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. She continued her education in England and then served at the United Nations under Secretary General U Thant.

The brutal repression of mass uprisings against the military dictatorship elicited Aung San Suu Kyi’s first political act, a call for multiparty elections.

She defied the military’s ban on freedom of assembly by conducting a country-wide campaign for democracy and human rights.

One scene in the film recalls a 1989 incident in which Suu Kyi courageously walked toward a line of soldiers who had their rifles pointed towards her.

Despite the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest, her National League for Democracy swept the 1990 elections, garnering 82% of the vote. The military government, however, annulled the election results.

For her efforts to produce peaceful change in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest, was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. The military government kept her under house arrest until 1995.

Even then Aung San Suu Kyi’s attempts to organise a political opposition and travel about the countryside were restricted by the military government.

In September, 2000 Aung was again placed under house arrest for her political activities and was only released on May 6, 2002. The United Nations has been brokering reconciliation talks between the democracy movement and the military government. She is now back under house arrest, but was recently seen on TV supporting the monks calls for change.

Dare To Discuss:
How can I support the Burmese people during the present repression

Dare To Discuss:
How did Laura’s experiences help her work through her grief and make a new for herself. When student demonstrators attempted to kill soldiers in the escape attempt, the professor rebukes them, claiming “you can fight without hate”. Is this possible? Is such a concept naïve?