How does a Jewish girl from the middle-class suburbs of Chicago grow up to become president of a South American nation? Thunder in Guyana profiles Janet Rosenberg Jagan, pegged the Second Eva Peron, to explain how her typical Jewish upbringing led to her atypical adult life pursuing service work and Marxist politics in South America.

“I don’t know that people see White when they look at me,” Janet says in an interview, assuming that her time spent in Guyana has made her look like a native. “I’ve been around for a long time. Fifty-four years is a long time.”

Thunder in Guyana reveals the unlikely story of an extraordinary woman who didn’t let her own fears or other people’s expectations stop her from doing what she believed in. And through the telling of Janet’s life story the closely-linked history of Guyana comes alive. Archival newsreel footage documents the British colony’s slow liberation and declaration of independence, while interviews with Janet and her admirers explain what the brave female politician did to organize and educate the nation’s poor laboring class.

She might have had an ordinary childhood, but Janet was never an ordinary girl. Friends and family recall that, in her youth, Janet she was exceptionally active and pretty, and she excelled at everything she did. In fact, she was so strong and determined that she could have gone to the Olympics for swimming. But she also always had a rebellious streak. Janet laughs remembering how mad her parents were when they found out that, as a teenager, she spent her allowance on flying lessons!

But it wasn’t just rebelliousness that brought Janet to Guyana; it was love. And it was love that kept her there for the rest of her life. While she was studying at university, an attractive Guyanese exchange student, Chetti Jagan, caught Janet’s eye. Together they dove deeper into leftist politics, bonding over controversial ideas that excited them both and would serve as the glue of their relationship. When Janet followed Chetti back to his home country, her uncle predicted she’d be back in a year. Boy was he wrong! Janet has spent her life in service to the Guyana.

The film suggests that Janet’s Jewish heritage helped her relate to the poor black laborers of Guyana. Having grown up in an anti-Semitic, mostly-gentile community, Janet was familiar with being made to feel inferior and oppressed. She had watched as the men in her family struggled to get jobs, and she had had listened to her playmates tell cruel racist jokes that they didn’t entirely understand. Perhaps her fight for equality in Guyana was her own way of battling against the prejudice that she personally had suffered.

Today, after dedicating her life to fighting for a foreign nation’s poor, Janet is recognized as being a selfless and unstoppable force, even into her old age. “She’s been there from the very beginning. She’s put her neck out more than most Guyanese,” Janet daughter-in-law (who is Guyanese) exclaims. “She’s more Guyanese than most Guyanese you’ll meet,” she adds, “she’s more Guyanese than me!”

But Janet wasn’t always so well-liked by everyone. When she first become involved in politics, Janet’s adversaries spread false rumors that she was related to the infamous Rosenbergs who were executed for espionage. Around the same time, a U.S. reporter accused her of spreading propaganda to recruit communists and wrote that, she was, in the worst sense, “a woman for the U.S. to keep an eye on.”

Fortunately, happiness isn’t a matter of popularity, or even comfort. Janet’s story reveals that a good life is the result of knowing oneself and living according to one’s convictions. She and Chetti were so focused on their cause that it didn’t matter what critics thought or said, and, if she could help the people, Janet didn’t mind living in an impoverished nation.

At eighty-two, she’s still going into the office, still working for the Guyanese people, and doing it with a smile.