Rocket, The (ATOM Study Guide)

This 96-minute feature film is written and directed by Australian filmmaker Kim Mordaunt, produced by Sylvia Wilczynski of Red Lamp Films and due for release in Australia in 2013. The film was shot in Laos and Thailand in January 2012. Kim Mordaunt is an experienced Australian actor, teacher and cinematographer who is best known for his large body of documentary work, and has lived and worked throughout South-East Asia. The Rocket was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival 2013, where it won Best First Feature, the Crystal Bear for Best Feature in the Generation KPlus youth category and the Amnesty International Award. It also won Best Feature, Best Actor (for ten-year-old Sitthiphon Disamoe) and the Audience Award at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Synopsis

The film is set in the enigmatic and little-known country of Laos. It is a heartwarming story of a ten-year old boy, Ahlo, who from his very birth is seen to bring bad luck to all who come in contact with him. Set in rural Laos, which is still suffering from the vestiges of both years of civil war and the Vietnam War of the 1960–70s, the young boy's family and the local villagers have been told by government officials that their village has to be abandoned to make way for a new dam, a commercial Australian–Lao project. Forced to move to a location totally unsuitable for subsistence farmers, the young boy meets up with other 'misfits' – a spirited orphan, Kia, and her eccentric uncle 'Purple'. As a group they are ostracised by the other relocated villagers, but Ahlo initiates a dangerous but lucrative plan to save them all and finally gain forgiveness. It is a personal story set amid the backdrop of a country in transition, incorporating great humour and the examination of a number of human rights issues.

Curriculum links

The curriculum areas that the documentary could be related to include:

• SOSE/HSIE
• English
• Media Studies
• Civics and Citizenship
• Politics
• Sociology
• Environmental Studies
• Geography
• Business Studies