Letters from Burma

By Aung San Suu Kyi (Penguin Books, 2010)

“Letters from Burma” is an unforgettable collection from the Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In these astonishing letters, Aung San Suu Kyi reaches out beyond Burma’s borders to paint for her readers a vivid and poignant picture of her native land.

From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

By Pascal Khoo Thwe (Harper Perennial, 2003)

In 1988, Dr. John Casey, a professor visiting Burma, meets a waiter in Mandalay with a passion for the works of James Joyce, and the encounter changes both their lives. Pascal, a member of the Kayan Padaung tribe, was the first member of his community to study English at a university. Within months of his meeting with Dr. Casey, Pascal’s world lay in ruins. Burma’s military dictatorship forces him to sacrifice his studies, and the regime’s brutal armed forces murder his lover. Fleeing to the jungle, he becomes a guerrilla fighter in the life-or-death struggle against the government. In desperation, he writes a letter to the Englishman he met in Mandalay. Miraculously reaching its destination, the letter leads to Pascal’s rescue and his enrollment in Cambridge University, where he is the first Burmese tribesman ever to attend.

They Call It Myanmar: Lifting the Curtain

 Shot clandestinely over a 2-year period, this film provides a rare look at the second-most isolated country on the planet. Interviews and interactions with more than 100 people throughout Burma, including an interview with the recently released Aung San Suu Kyi, are interwoven with spectacular footage of this little-seen nation and its people. (Released in 2012 and also available on Amazon Instant Video.)

The Lady

 The Lady is the extraordinary true story of Aung San Suu Kyi (Michelle Yeoh), the woman who is at the core of Burma’s democracy movement, and her husband, Michael Aris (David Thewlis). (Rated R.)

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