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Trekking through the dangerous jungles of Laos, 10-year old Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) is determined to convince his superstitious family that he is not a lightning rod for bad luck.

Blessed with a nutty uncle obsessed with James Brown (Thep Phongam) and caught in the middle of a village relocation program over the building of a dam, Ahlo's eventful journey takes him through the scarred landscape of his home, littered with Vietnam-era bombs that are still waiting to go off.

Australian writer/director Kim Mordaunt was inspired to make this wistful, often lyrical film after his 2007 documentary Bomb Harvest, which told of the annual toll claimed by the unexploded bombs in Laos.

Thankfully he layers the unavoidable political notes with real warmth, humour and character, a quality that clearly benefited from using a mix of professional and non-professional actors. Mordaunt also knows how to use irony without pushing it; as Ahlo aims to prove his worth at a big rocket festival, we're reminded that The Rocket is not a political allegory, it's an offbeat, celebratory coming-of-age story about a kid.

An Australian co-production that deserves to be seen by a lot more than would've currently experienced it, The Rocket is one of those feel good films that is impossible not to fall for despite it not quite going on with the early promise of the possibility of a new classic.

Director Kim Mordaunt clearly has a spot in his heart for the people of Laos (where this film is set), no doubt stemming from his time filming his scary and touching documentary on the amount of unexploded bombs left over in the country in the 2007 doco Bomb Harvest. Weaving his knowledge of this true life aspect of the country Mordaunt tailors a touching story around it that features some stand out child actors and a particularly groovy uncle in the form of the James Brown loving Uncle Purple played very well by Suthep Po-ngam, but in the end it is the aforementioned child actors that steal the film and make it what it is.

As determined and supposedly cursed young boy Ahlo young actor Sitthiphon Disamoe does a supreme job of portraying a boy that unfortunately bares the stigma of being born a twin into a village that believes twins carry a curse. Ahlo's journey that he takes with family is fraught with both sadness and joy and it's here that the film struggles to lay hold onto what it's setting out to achieve with moments of emotion not played out to full effect and comedic elements feeling misplaced amongst them. Mordaunt must of found it hard to place all these varying emotions into the right place and the films last 20 – 30 minutes really shows this. Mordaunt however excels at capturing the beautiful and at times scary images of the country and his direction of Disamoe and also young actress Loungnam Kaosainam as Ahlo's friend Kia is exemplary, a fine achievement for an Australian director in what is an area that often trips up other compatriots.

Submitted as Australia's entry into this year's Academy Awards foreign film category and playing well to festivals the world over its clear many feel an affection for this unique and often heart-warming tale. Australia should be proud of what Mordaunt has achieved here and even prouder of his efforts to highlight the horror of what Laos still has to deal with today thanks to a war that is now sadly largely forgotten.

3 and a half unwashed purple suits out of 5

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.

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.

"Its not ones birth star decides whether he is lucky or unlucky, its his inspiring deed that decide whether he is lucky to others or not'' well, luck is just an unpredictable phenomena, its not something that to be imposed on the basis of time or situation.

2013's Australian's Lao movie ''The Rocket'' neatly narrates the story of a boy by the name Ahlo who was fist believed to be the curse to their family later turn out to be an actual lucky champ to the entire village, this movie is about the tribal family who migrate in search for the permanent settlement but faces various problems due to Ahlo's mischief, the entire thing turns around when Ahlo shows an interest to participate in a traditional rocket competition to score a prize money for his family settlement, but entire family disapprove his intention of participating in the competition because of his bad luck, in such situation Ahlo's only hope was his friend 'Purple' who helps him in building a rocket for the competition, villagers believed that the rocket which goes high in the air explodes the cloud and brings rain, Ahlo's strong dedication and hope makes him the winner of that competition and at last his rocket brings rain to the village, thus Ahlo turn to be the lucky one.

The way the movie had been taken is so fantastic, entire making is fine and neat, those little artists are just mind blowing, this film has come very well with great realistic performance by the entire cast, irony, emotion are properly mixed and presented together, it's an awesome work with some little mega-mini talents.