A gripping but heart-warming, deeply expressive story about the determination of a young boy whom life hasn’t treated kindly. With remarkable access to real rituals and festivities in the stunning mountains of Laos, The Rocket is a unique view into a world never seen on film before.
10-year-old Ahlo is believed to bring bad luck, and is blamed for a string of disasters. When his family lose their home and are forced to move, Ahlo meets the spirited orphan Kia and her eccentric uncle Purple: an ex-soldier with a fetish for James Brown. Ahlo leads his family, Purple and Kia through a land scarred by war in search of a new home. In a last plea to try and prove he’s not cursed, Ahlo builds a giant explosive rocket to enter the most lucrative but dangerous competition of the year: the Rocket Festival. One of the first feature films for international release set and shot in the intriguing and little-known country of Laos, rarely seen by the outside world since the end of the Vietnam War.
“The Rocket is a rite of passage story of a boy's journey through grief, guilt and self-doubt, and his reconciliation with his father – set against the timely universal themes of the displacement of people by industry and the legacy of war.” (Kim Mordaunt)
Kim Mordaunt
Kim Mourdant holds a film production degree from the University of Technology Sydney, as well as a diploma in acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art LAMDA. Kim has taught filmmaking and drama in Asian, Arabic and Australian Aboriginal communities, and been a filmmaking mentor in refugee centres and prisons. He has made TV documentaries and dramas. The Rocket, Mordaunt's debut feature, won three major awards at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.