As a man fascinated by the world we live in, British film producer Andy Harries has stepped out of his comfort zone to tackle one of the highest profile political ordeals in recent years with the upcoming political biopic The Lady. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician, until recently, had spent 15 years under house arrest.
Her crime was campaigning for democracy in a country run by a military junta.
As the leader of The National League for Democracy in Burma, she led her party to victory in the 1990 General Elections. The leading military junta denounced these results and had Aung San Suu Kyi arrested.
“The Lady is a deeply inspiring and ultimately very sad story about an amazing woman who deserves our respect,” the producer says with a rousing conviction. “It all started when I went to Burma in the early 90s with my wife, Rebecca Frayn, a novelist who would go on to write the film. While on holiday in Thailand, we realised we could visit Burma for a week with a tourist’s visa.
“Burma was under strict military control. It was a dreadful experience. You weren’t allowed to talk to the people and the people, of course, couldn’t talk to you. You could really sense how incredibly oppressed the nation was.
“This experience remained with both of us. So, about five years ago we had the idea for the film. But the story of the relationship between Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband Dr Michael Aris was much less well known. There were no books on it, no articles on it.
“Essentially, Michael’s role in the relationship – once his wife was under house arrest – was to keep her name on the forefront of the world. Part of his campaign was helping her win Nobel Peace Prize of 1991.
“He felt that the more well known she was, the safer she would be, that they wouldn’t dare kill her. That was the story we wanted to tell.
“They were madly in love, but at the same time, the Burmese government used the fact he was a white Englishman as ammunition for their remorseless attacks on her. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t have time to explore the full, horrific extent of what was going on in Burma at the time.”
Michael Aris was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997. The Burmese government refused to grant him a visa despite his severe illness. Aung San Suu Kyi, temporarily freed from house arrest, refused to leave Burma for fear of being refused re-entry by the military junta. Aris died in 1999. The last time the couple had seen each other was the Christmas of 1995.
After 15 years, Aung San Suu Kyi was finally released from house arrest on November 13 2010.
“The interesting thing is that, while we were making the film, one of its purposes was to highlight her political imprisonment, and to bring to light how many political prisoners there are in Burma. Of course, she was released halfway through filming.
“When we were setting up the film we weren’t able to contact her in any shape or form, so we didn’t know whether she’d be happy about a film being made about her. We took a risk there in a sense.
“She is an incredible woman. She’s effectively been in prison for 20 years. She draws obvious parallels with Nelson Mandela. It’s a very inspiring story. People that are willing to sacrifice their lives and their families for a cause of democracy are people we should all be aware of and respect.
“Things are changing in Burma. But there is still a huge way to go. It’s still very far from being a democracy. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a real possibility that she could even end up standing again for parliament. So the film serves a different purpose now; it serves as a testimony to her incredible character and her situation.”
Perhaps his most notable works are The Queen and The Damned United. The Queen, of course, saw Helen Mirren awarded an Academy Award and The Damned United, a fictionalised account of Brian Clough’s tenure at Leeds United, was a critics’ favourite of 2009. So what is it about biographical films that Andy Harries seems to engage with so consistently well?
“I don’t actually know to be honest,” he laughs. “I studied politics at Hull University and had spent my entire youth wanting to be a journalist. I had worked at a paper before university. But when I graduated, I just wanted to tell stories about current affairs. I think The Queen, The Deal and The Lady are all similar. I feel inspired by real stories. It’s really important to try and make sense of the world we live in.”
The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, was undoubtedly the most successful British film of 2006, with the leading lady earning an Academy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth II.
“The Queen really came from being in London the week Princess Diana died in 1997. It was the most extraordinary thing I’d ever witnessed. I just remember people behaving incredible peculiarly. It was very sad, I understand that. But the city was at a standstill. We just wanted to try and make sense of it. It all just left us thinking: What the fuck happened that week?
“Eventually, we revisited it all and thought about how we could make a story about it. I’d worked quite closely with Helen Mirren on Prime Suspect. She was certainly the starting point for The Queen. The starting point for The Lady was Michelle Yeoh.
“Sometimes in movies it’s good to start with the casting. Consider The Damned United. We were at the Venice Film festival with The Queen, when Stephen Frears turned up with an advanced copy of David Peace’s wonderful book. On the front cover was a picture of Brian Clough. He put it in front of me and said, “What do you think? I think that’s Michael Sheen. I think we should make this film.’”
And they did just that, The Damned United, and particularly Michael Sheen’s performance, was met with critical acclaim.
Andy Harries takes an extraordinary amount of pride from his British identity; this is evident in nearly all of his high profile projects. If you look at The Royle Family, The Queen, The Damned United or Cold Feet; his work is quintessentially British. You would, therefore, expect a strangeness to come hand in hand with his latest project in Burma.
“It was strange to a degree to make a film so, so far away from British culture. But, the starting point was really the story of Michael Aris, an Englishman. Much of the research was done in London, so the Britishness of the story has always been a key part of it.
“I’ve always been attracted to British culture though. For example, as proven with The Damned United, I’ve always loved football. I follow Peterborough United (which is tragic). But who doesn’t remember the Clough years? Of course, Leeds were a fucking rough crowd back in the day. But the Clough saga was a fantastic soap opera and the finest example of good old fashioned, British football. It was a long, long way from the galaxy of international players there are now.”
It’s fairly easy to see why Andy Harries is widely regarded as one of the finest British film and television producers of the last decade. The sad truth, though, is that the most financially triumphant films these days generally emerge from Hollywood.
“I was offered a job in LA about 10 years ago. It was very tempting and very flattering, but it was right in the middle of The Royle Family and Cold Feet. I knew that if you go to LA, you must go seriously. You can’t just go to Hollywood for a year. It takes a number of years of commitment.
“I’ve never really been into the big money, big houses and big cars. It doesn’t really interest me. Hollywood is dead, culturally. It’s not very stimulating.
“There are exceptions, of course, but too many Hollywood films are so mechanical; there’s no heart and soul. It’s disappointing really. Hollywood doesn’t make as many great films as it used to. You’ll find much more interesting films all over the world, not just Britain.”