The Cambridge Arts Picturehouse this week offered a single screening of “Aung San Suu Kyi – Lady of No Fear”, the 2010 documentary exploring the life of this important pro-democratic political icon. In 2011, director Luc Besson released a feature film addressing the same subject matter. This woman is an incredible figure of political power and female resilience, and both the feature and the documentary sympathetically uncover the difficulties which she and her family have had to face in recent years.

Using a compilation of interviews with her friends and colleagues, as well as news clips and old photographs, director Anne Gyrithe Bonne draws a sensitive portrait of Suu. On a visit to her homeland in 1988, initially intended to be a short visit to see her ailing mother, Suu became involved with the critical political situation in Burma. Since then she has become one of the most important – and controversial - figures associated with Burmese politics.

In addition to her extraordinary endeavours in Burma, the documentary also highlights some of the personal difficulties she has dealt with. As an alumnus of Oxford University, much of Suu’s early life as a young woman was based very definitively in England. In 1972 Suu married Oxford don Michael Aris, with whom she had two sons. Much of the film is made up of interviews with close friends of the couple, who speak warmly about the pair. It seems that Suu’s decision to abandon her family in favour of her country had a tragic impact on those who were closest to her: whilst not entirely unexpected, it is clear that the loss of friend, mother and wife was a difficult blow.

This documentary, which lasts just under an hour, is a beautifully rendered exploration of family, politics, and patriotism. At the centre of the film we see a woman torn by conflicting passions, who ultimately sacrificed all for the sake of democracy. Whatever your personal or political tendency may be, it is an expertly crafted film and a fascinating insight into the tumultuous history of Burma.