BUOYANCY

Australia, 2019, 93 minutes, Colour.
Sarm Heng, Thanawut Kasro.
Directed by Rodd Rathjen.

This is an issues film. And, it is a very strong issues film: contemporary slavery and exploitation in Southeast Asia. In fact, the audience watching experience some rather grim sequences which will need some buoyancy to keep watching and reflecting.

While the dialogue of the film is in the languages of Cambodia and Thailand, it is an Australian production, the director growing up in Victoria and making a number of short films, here making his feature debut. Buoyancy has won a number of awards, including the Ecumenical Award at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival.

While the film is a narrative, its attention to detail in the lives of families in Cambodia, the people smugglers, the harsh regime on the fishing trawlers off the Thai coast, it could also serve as something of a documentary expose of its situations.

The narrative becomes more personal as the audience is introduced to a 14-year-old Cambodian boy, Chakra (Sarm Heng in his only acting role so far) carrying a sack of fertiliser which he then throws out on to the rice fields. He works with his family in the fields, going to their meagre home, angry with his father for having so many children, unwilling to work for his brother, yet going out to play football with his friends. But, he decides to leave, expecting to get a better job and some pay working in a factory.

We know that this will not happen. There is an ugly picture of how the people smugglers work, lining up their customers, demanding money, cruel when the money is lacking, cramming people head to toe in trucks under tarpaulins, delivering them to the wharves in Thailand, their immediately having to empty the barrels of fish from the local trawlers. And, no factory. Slave labour incessantly on the trawler, sorting the fish, picking out a large one to offer to the captain, swirling the decks to clean them, cramped sleeping quarters, having to get the rice out of a container with a mug. Day after day, day after day.

So, we see Chakra and we see through his eyes, dismay, disappointment, some anger, some underlying rage, especially with the way that a friend he met on the way who is looking for money for his family is treated by the captain and his assistant, his mental state disturbed – leading to his death, although he had proclaimed a number of times that on the trawler, they were already dead.

The captain is often all smiles even as he is cruel, as is his assistant. The captain explains to Chakra that his young life was similar to his, though harder, and he takes a shine to Chakra, expecting him to follow in his footsteps.

There is quite some violence in what is to follow, Chakra both angry and shrewd.

So, the audience spends most of the film at sea, observing the workers, a feeling of dread were we to find ourselves in such circumstances – and, what would we do, how would we react, are there limits?

Information is given at the end of the film, statistics are offered, the reality of this kind of slavery and exploitation in Southeast Asia.


1. An issue film? Slavery in Asia?

2. The title, chakra and his experience?

3. The final information about slavery, people smugglers, exploitation, Southeast Asia?

4. The Cambodia settings, the roads, the fields, work in the paddies, fertilising? The family, the home, boys and play, the passing girls? Thailand, the wharfs? The ocean sequences, the sea, the islands? The musical score?

5. Audiences seeing the events with Chakra and through his eyes? Aged 14, the difficulty of his life, carrying the bag of fertiliser, working in the fields, the number of children at home, the poverty, his criticisms of his father, not wanting to work for his brother? Few prospects? Wanting to escape family slavery, his friend and the possibility of leaving, the friend not wanting to go? Issues of cost? His leaving home?

6. Travel, the pickup, the people smugglers, the issue of money, the friend with little money, his having no cash? Crammed into the vehicles? Arriving at the wharf, the promise of going to factories? The boats, falling of the fish, the number of barrels, the nets, the continued catches, sorting, the fish for the Capt, the rest in the whole the barrels? The sailors and the comment about the seas being over-fished?

7. Befriending the man at the stop, his story getting money for his family, the going together, working together, the man in his gift of the pillow for Chakra? The work, on deck, the cramped quarters, the meagre rice? Sleeping? The effect on the man, his being bullied, his mental condition, hitting the sailor, the rescue, his being tied to the ropes and pulled by each ship, sound but not visualised? His saying that he was already dead?

8. The other workers, anonymous, not communicating, the way of life? The newcomer taking Chakra spot?

9. The Capaint, his manner, personality, brutal? His explanation of his life, a hard life? The other member of the group? Cruelty, smiling, the fish, the gift of the hindered?

10. Chakra, his life, the hard work, watching everyone, his friend’s death and its cruelty, his going to the engine room, the lights going out, the attack? His having had the opportunity to steer? The assistant, hitting on the head, overboard? The attack of the Capt, his ousting him, the captains for and his bleeding? The reaction of the other crew?

11. His decision, finding the captain's money, steering the boat, getting off, getting the lift, the friendly people on the truck, the gift of the soft drink and his not, going back to his family, watching them working in the fields? His leaving? To what?

12. The violence of the film, the 14-year-old and his feelings, his rage, is killings? His shrewdness?

13. The ending and the social concern of the film?