A Laosy Life
21. Nov, 2008 
0 Comments
The Betrayal
(Nerakhoon)
Capturing The Phrasavaths
Trailers & Mo | Official Website
The Phrasavath family have fought in many types of battles– actual war, emotional tugs-of-war (sadly not the Battle of the Network Stars), and each time have been betrayed in different ways. The first involves their patriarch, who served the CIA and their interests in fighting the North Vietnamese presence in Laos, their home country. When the Americans packed up their shizz and returned home, they left their Laotian comrades behind to fend for themselves. Not such a great thing when the communist Pathet Lao group seized power and made these former US helpers enemies of the state. Their father was sent to a work camp and presumed to be gone from their lives forever. The eldest son, Thavi, sensing that it won’t be long for him to be taken as well, escapes to Thailand, where he eventually reunites with his mother and many siblings, although two of his sisters are missing. From there they flee to America in hopes that the country that left them hanging would welcome them in. Well, they were wrong again, as the US could care less, and so the family forged ahead, living in a slummy project of Brooklyn, barely speaking a word of English. From there this doc picks up its camera, and Thavi, along with Cinematographer/DP extraordinaire Ellen Kuras (who lensed some of the mos beautiful movies wees ever seen: The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Swoon), over the course of 23 incredibly turbulent years, captures his family’s integration into a new world, after having lost so much from leaving their old world. What we see in the ensuing years is equally painful as it is inspiring, and we get to experience it in a poetically first-hand manner, with an added bonus of a well tuned score by Mr LOTR music man Howard Shore. Sure, the film leaves a lotta unanswered questions, like how they were able to escape from living in NYC borough squalor to a more comfortable life in suburban sprawl, but this isn’t a doc that flows on story, just pure emotion that will strike a chord with anyone who’s part of a family… which means everyone on this earth
Further Reading Rainbow: czech out these two Q&As with co-director Kuras
Verdictgo: Breast In Show
Betrayal opens today in NYC only, and soon in other places
until next thyme the balcony is clothed…
