The Rocket

The film 'The Rocket' encompasses beautiful, honorable and unique sets of attributes that have touched me and I expect will touch audiences around the world. What is remarkable, is that the heart of this story is actually transferable to any community in our world. 'The Rocket' is one of the first proper feature films based in Laos. It shows its stunning landscape with excellent cinematography and also touches tastefully on some controversial issues, which have been shaping the country in the past and the present. The sensitive storyline includes many layers that give it texture, which makes it such a rich movie and exiting journey for the audience. The acting, especially by the main cast, is very convincing and touching. The two child protagonists are extraordinary! All in all a unique feature film that takes you on a heart moving journey.

Tired of the Oscar race and its obviously-baiting nominees? The Rocket, set in Laos, is more unusual and imaginative than anything you will see, even Her, under the Oscar umbrella. Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe), a surviving Laotian twin at birth and therefore potentially bad luck for his family, travels with his family and two friends to find a new home after being displaced by plans for another dam.

Not only is Ahlo played by a new young actor who keeps your sympathy, but also Kia (Loungnman Kaosainam), his girl friend (he can't be more than 10 and she about 9) is equally charming and intelligent. Their journey is plagued by setbacks, yet Ahlo remains intrepid and creative as he finally plans to nix this curse and become a hero.

So far the film is filled with bizarre adventures, mostly suggesting he is a curse on the family as bad luck plagues it (It's not Little Miss Sunshine's pleasant turbulence; however, Rocket's family is an eccentric crew). One of the most interesting fairs to be seen ever in film is the Rocket Contest, held each year to send missiles to the clouds to induce rain, to "poke the gods' arse," or something like that. This event is the Holy Grail of the family's journey, a way to gain prize money and to counter the bad karma of Ahlo's birth.

The natural performances of Beasts of the Southern Wild echo in The Rocket, both leads believable as intrepid young, underprivileged waifs of pluck and imagination. The relationship between Ahlo and his loving but too vulnerable father, Toma (Sumrit Warin) is reminiscent of father and son in Vittorio DeSica's Bicycle Thief. Caitlin Yeo's original score, never obtrusive, like the film itself, tells the story with dignity and respect for the characters.

Writer-director Kim Mordaunt has balanced the disparate elements perfectly. And best of all, it is not some exploitative tome about the emerging third world. It's about family! Its formulaic nature and slight drift to the sentimental do not keep it from being an original work of merit.

The Rocket, winner of the World Narrative prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, is one of the year's best movies with a plot as imaginative as anything else out there.

Wonderful documentary style story. Scenes still have great impact on me. The casual acting styles of the children were captivating & led to credence all the way through the film. Confronting issues & imagery were simply presented without sentimental or 'fluffy' enhancement. The stories of each character were presented so realistically by apparently unsophisticated actors, with the cinematography displaying facial & scenic imagery so beautifully & again simply, so as to encourage the feel of realism & the documentary style. Would expect more awards to be coming this films way. Started out as a 'bookclub' task & left me with a lifelong impact.

A little boy has the misfortune of being the surviving twin in Laos, where tradition holds that he has 50/50 chance of bringing bad luck to all those around him. Ahlo lives in a village with his mother, father, and grandmother, when news of a new hydro electric dam disrupts their lives by uprooting them to another, supposedly better place. While dragging all of their possessions up a steep hill, tragedy strikes, and of course the young boy is blamed, especially by his superstitious grandma. They amble on to a town which holds a rocket festival every year with a cash prize. Ahlo decides to build a rocket to prove that he isn't always the messenger of doom. The actor playing Ahlo is tremendous, as is the little girl, Kia, his best friend in the film. Check IMDb credits for their long and difficult names. Rocket will have you jumping up and cheering for this underdog to finally be accepted. One of the ten best movies of the year, and severely overlooked.

There have been some outstanding child performances this year including that of Tye Sheridan, Liam James, Kacey Mottet Klein, and others, but none better than little Sitthiphon Disamoe's in Kim Mordaunt's The Rocket. A hit at the Berlinale, The Rocket also took top prizes at the Tribeca Film Festival including the Best Narrative Feature, Audience Award, and the Best Actor award for Disamoe. An Australian, Laotian, and Thai co-production, the film can be accused of being formulaic, but it is so full of spirit and genuine warmth that it more than earns its audience appeal.

Shot in northern Laos, Mordaunt does not hesitate to remind of us of the legacy of American bombs dropped during the Vietnam War and still visible in the vegetation, nor does he flinch from depicting the reality of poverty and exploitation. In the film, Ahlo (Disamoe) is a ten-year-old full of high energy but burdened with having to prove that he is not the carrier of bad luck. Born in a small hut in a remote Laotian village, Ahlo is a twin whose sibling died during childbirth and whose grandmother Taitok (Bunsri Yindi) proclaimed that he was cursed from the outset. Sadly, distressing events in his young life seemed to give credence to the prophecy.

As their village was being torn down to make room for a dam, Ahlo (now ten-years-old) and his family are relocated to a shantytown that is worse than their former home; the boy's mother Mali (Alice Kaohavong) is involved in a tragic accident, and Ahlo's relationship with his father Toma (Sumrit Warin) becomes distant and strained. Feeling alone, he develops a friendship with Kia (Loungnam Kaosainam) a young girl whose family died from malaria, and who lives with her quirky "Uncle Purple," (Thep Phongam), a heavy drinker and ex-soldier who models himself after American singer James Brown.

After taking food from a holy place, Ahlo's attempt to return it causes serious problems for his family and they are forced to go on the road looking for a new home. When they stumble on an annual rocket festival where top prizes lure participants to build and launch the best rocket into the sky to beseech the sky gods to bring rain, Ahlo seizes the opportunity to bury his image as the carrier of bad luck. While The Rocket requires a suspension of disbelief, it is only a small possibility that you will leave the theater unmoved.