THE ROCKET

Australia, 2013, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sitthiphon Dimasoe, Loungnam Kaosainam.
Directed by Kim Mordaunt.


The Rocket is a film well worth seeing.

It is a collaboration between Screen Australia and film producers in Laos. We do not see many, if any, films from Laos about Laotian people and their way of life. This film serves as a good introduction for outsiders to enter into Laos, experience the problems of village people, and see what is happening in this, for Australians and many other nations, remote country, part of Indochina, the but seemingly squeezed in between Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and China.

The film was written and directed by Australian Kim Mordaunt. He shows a great familiarity with the people in the country and has found ways of introducing them to others. He had previously made a documentary, Bomb Harvest, in Laos in 2007, and draws on some elements for this story.

The central character is a young boy, Ahlo, played engagingly by Sitthiphon Disamoe. In the prologue to the film, we are introduced to animist type religious behaviour with a grandmother carrying the head of an ox to a ritual shrine. It is for the safe birthing of the little boy. The process is complex and the mother delivers twins, one of whom is stillborn, which moves the grandmother to conceal his existence and decide that the living boy is cursed.

After some years, the boy and his family are living a quiet but poor existence in their village, he catching fish and selling them in the market. But fliers are handed out to indicate that a second dam is being built in the vicinity and that their valley will be flooded. This Laotian story is quite prominent in other countries of Asia, China having produced several films in recent years that show the repercussions of dam building on poor people and their having to relocate.

The people generally accept their fate and begin to move. During the film a tragedy occurs which has repercussions on the family. They try to settle, but are continually moved on. They encounter a strange and alcoholic man who has fought as a soldier in the wars of the 1970s. He looks like American singer James Brown and cultivates this impression, especially with his purple coat. He has a little niece and he protects her. Ahlo and the little niece, Kia, meet, become friends, collect flowers to sell in the market. However, Ahlo is also accident prone and causes many problems in the settlement and his family tent is destroyed by fire by the vengeful people.

On they go. On the way they are in danger of unexploded bombs and grenades left from the war era. But this explosive theme is continued because they reach a village where there is a rocket competition. The rockets are being fired into the air as a ritual praying for rain for their drought stricken region.

The rocket competition has its amusing side, especially as the young boy decides that he is going to build a rocket to beat all others, to get some money and some land so that the family will not hurt goes there to the city to work in factories back and stay in the land. The grandmother is a harsh and critical old woman – she could well have been in the rocket and fired into space!

This review will not spoil the ending but there will be no need for handkerchiefs and tears.

The location photography in Laos as most impressive, especially the strange-shaped high-reaching mountains. The film has an authentic feel with the local people performing. The plot is complex but designed to make its points in 90 minutes running time. However, Ahlo win over most audiences and persuade them that they should pay more attention to Laos and its people.

1. The popularity of the film? Awards?

2. An introduction to rural Laos? For locals, for outsiders, for the Australian audience? A close-up in images and stories?

3. The title, Ahlo and his achievement, but living through a difficult story?

4. Laos, cut off from the rest of Indochina, its traditions, colonial impositions, the land, animist religion, belief in luck? The cultural experience?

5. The grandmother bringing the head of the ox, the prayer and ritual? The difficult birth of the twins, one dying, decision not to tell the father? The curse of the twin? The grandmother and her superstitions, blaming Arlo?

6. Arlo and his life, at home, his age, fishing, selling the fish and the market, his boat?

7. His mother, her joy at home, the mangoes? With Arlo? Her husband, his work, love, ordinary life?

8. The information sheets distributed in the village, the need to move, the second dam, the hopes about the house, the crowds leaving, crossing the bridge? Arlo wanting to take his boat, and the mangoes her future planning? The box, pulling the boat up the hill, everyone pushing, the mother, her necklace, stopping, the reverse of the boat, her death, the shock? Her burial?

9. The father, quiet, his work, love for his boy? The grandmother, her harshness, the boat, blaming Ahlo?

10. The grandmother, tough, the ox head, wanting the abortion, her age, her criticisms, the curse, on the move, and her later change of heart?

11. Arrival in the camp, the tents, hardships, lack of water, trying to settle? The attention to detail in the camp?

12. Kia and her uncle, Purple? Purple in himself, his age, having been a soldier, with the Americans, his drinking, his likeness to James brown, his purple shirt? The grenades and his warnings? His forbidding Kia to play with Ahlo? But joining him? Kia, friendship with Ahlo, getting the flowers, selling them, the market, their friendship, happy together? Arguments?

13. The disasters for Ahlo, the curse, Ahlo and his behaviour, his beliefs, stealing, the burial ground, the chase, the fire and the house burning down, the neighbours and their revenge? Moving on, the new place, the bats, the grenades?

14. The town, the rockets and the competition, the need for rain? The festival, the judges? Building a rocket, the father and his involvement? His love, its failure?

15. Ahlo, the bat, the help from Purple, rockets, asking his father for help, collecting material, urinating on the bat excrement? Using it for the explosion?

16. The prize, cash and land, the grandmother’s reaction, critical, the father, worrying about Ahlo, his running away, Kia and her help? Setting it off?

17. The family wanting to stay on the land, not go to the city for work in the factory? The firing of the rocket, the reaction of the people, the judges, the grandmother? Ahlo and his success? His happiness? The final close up?