Monday, February 25, 2008

NERAKHOON (The Betrayal)

The time will come when the universe will shake. It will break piece by piece, country by country, religion by religion. Husband and wife will break into two. The children will escape, blowing like the wind. They will scatter to hide in the woods on islands like frightened deer hunted by evil men. The world we know will change…beyond recognition.

-5000-year-old Lao prophecy

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just watched Nerakhoon at the Fresno Film Festival. We were moved. This is an awesome film.

Afterwards a Lao gentleman stood and critiqued the movie for the fact that it blames the Americans for the "betrayal" when it was the Lao who betrayed themselves. Obviously this is a complex issue and I think most people who are aware of the topic are aware that it would be hard to explain in a few minutes. I understand the gentleman's comments and also understand the film makers' point.

The point is that the movie was made for Americans, not the Lao. The Lao already know the story. Perhaps it was also made for the Lao who are second generation or the 1.5 generation. Anyway, the politics of Laos at the time is not what is important for the story and for the American viewer. The American viewers need to know that before they treat the Lao people with contempt and judge them for whatever shortcomings they ascribe to them, it is important to understand that it was our country that contributed a great deal to the suffering and the misery that they're still enduring.

The issue of Lao people finding resolution to the war and bringing healing to the pain that they still feel is a different topic for a different film. This movie, if anything, reminds them of that pain, while at the same time brining some satisfaction knowing that the story that has gone untold for so long is finally being told.

Anyway, congratulations to the film makers and thank you for your years of labor that were necessary to bring this story out for the world to see.

Finally, I would like to add that this is not necessarily a story of the Lao experience, it is a story of the Human experience; and it is as much a part of the world we live in as any other story that can be told.

Anonymous said...

A message for Thavisouk Phrasavath:

I recently saw the movie at the Bangkok International Film Festival and I was quite moved by it. Your family's painful odyssey echoes the lives of people who are forever scarred by war and conflict. By sharing your story, you have brought your viewers to a deeper sense of our shared humanity.

Anonymous said...

After seeing this at the london BFI festival, I just wanted to congratulate the directors on this outstanding achievement. It's one of the most extraordinary films i've ever seen and i won't forget it. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I saw this in NYC in August and I hope that many others will also see it. Looking forward to the DVD.

Anonymous said...

I heard an interview with Ellen Kuras on Here on Earth, a Wisconsin Public Radio program. I live in western Wisconsin where there are many Hmong refugees and know and work with several Hmong students and adults. I am hoping the university here can screen this film. I can't wait to see it. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I saw the film yesterday at "Docuday" in Los Angeles. What stroke me about "The Betrayal", aside from its unconventional pacing and the beautiful visual poetry, is the emotional intensity and how it connected with EVERYONE in the audience.

In my case, I am a European immigrant living in the U.S. and I didn't know much about Laos' history. After seeing the film, I am more aware of the human face of "collateral damage", specifically for the Laotian community abroad.

However, the personal meaning that "The Betrayal" had for me are the similarities that I saw between my own family and the Phrasavath family.

We are also scattered around the world, not because of the harsh trigger of war, but for the quest of finding a new future and a new sense of self. And in the middle of that, I am spending a lot of time revisiting my relationship with my "internalized" parents and also "updating" the one with my real parents in the imited occasions in which I see them.

I think that the geniality of this movie resides in how powerfully it reflects the need of each and every immigrant to regain their own family and country of origin, mentally or in reality, and the need for every child to reclaim love from their parents, and the tough consequences that usually come when that need is unfulfilled.

Congratulations to the filmmakers and to the Phrasavath family for crafting and sharing their own portrait of a global family.

Anonymous said...

How come in the trailer when the women was describing the students carrying knives you didn't state she said black students?

Anonymous said...

I saw the film at the Nashville Belcourt theatre the other day and was happy and sad at the same time.

First generation Laotian in the U.S. remembered well all the struggles in Laos and the new foundland. Many took advantage of the new opportunity to better themselves by working hard days in and days out for minimum wages and save enough to own properties and send their kid to college.

I'm not so sure if the second or third generation Laotian understand the hardships and struggles the first experienced. I hope one day that they'll will and just maybe that they'll remember where they came from.

We all can change and adapt in time and places, but we can never change the color of our skin or integrity.

I want to thanks Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk for their wonderful works of art. It's a history lesson to all of us, especially the young generation Laotian and many American.

Darapon said...

"How come in the trailer when the women was describing the students carrying knives you didn't state she said black students?" ~ I did pick up on that too... she sounds like my mum!!

I just need to say thank you for that fact that this film exists - I'm second generation so everything in this film is very close to home - from the rantings of Thavisouk's mother to the monks chanting that familiar mantra. Every aspect of this film speaks to me; it speaks to my past, present and future. It speaks of my struggles, the exact struggles that Thavisouk and his siblings went through, of living in between worlds, identities and histories.

I must now sit my whole family down to watch this film.

Just breath-takingly amazing.

Moedap85 said...

This is a very great film my parents country and family too has been through war(the Nicaraguan vs the Sandinista war)in the late 70's.This movie really hit home and when I say home I mean my soul.I hope humanity learns from their mistakes and find true peace and the only true peace that there is, which is GOD........I recommend this film to every living being in this world, it is a very inspirational, motivational, and spiritual work of art and that's right up my alley...Thank you Thavisouk Phrasavath for sharing your life with the world, God bless you and your whole family and Ellen Kuras for her involvement and everyone who helped in the processes of making this film.

Sirivanh said...

I watched Nerakhoon on PBS last night. I was very young when my family left Laos for Canada. It’s always interesting to be reminded of the political situation that made so many Laotians leave their beautiful country, and try to survive and thrive in a strange land. Thank you for making this beautiful film.

Edwin said...
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Edwin said...
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Edwin said...

Hello Ellen and Thavi

Thank you so muck for making the movie. It was inspiring and educational. I am a Laotian and I was born in Thailand in a refugee camp and was sent to Mesa AZ in 1980. I heard all the stories on what my family went through as well. It is interesting and a reminder to see on film what really happen during that time. thank you again.God bless you

Anonymous said...

Well, watching the film with tear is not my usual habbit. I was not born yet when this family left Laos, everything my mom told has been included in this film.
Thank you very much film maker and you gentlemen, I learn so many things from this in terms of human right, family and history. Those can reflect very well Lao families.

To all Laotiane: I am proud of you

Anonymous said...

Thavi - your story and my own are eerily similar. I am honored to have met you, your wife, and darling little daughter in person. As with you, I left Laos and everything I knew in the middle of the night. My father was taken away by soldiers. I never got to see him again. Never got to say goodbye. I just remember soldiers breaking down our door and the fear in my nanny's voice as she threw me over the wall to a boy who could not have been much older than 13 years old. We ran and ran and then hid until nightfall. The dark of the night was our friend and safety was but a river away. We crossed the Mekong and as with you, I ran from what I remembered and what was forgotten. Thank you for this beautiful and moving story. Sincerely, Sovani.

Anonymous said...

Good film, well presented and I'm very please of the documentary. It portrayed a portion of the many sufferings that many families have experiences during that era of communism colonization. The documentary amplifies and presented an image of the holistic affect of war. Since I’m a second generation Laotian who was too young to remember any affect of the war, now acknowledge the suffering and have great gratitude for the one who unfortunately experience this horrible act of war.

John V.

Unknown said...

Hi I have watched this film and purchased it also. I would like to know if you have any un-cut footage. My Husband & family are in this film and all close to sinxay (Thavisouk Phrasavath half brother)and his parents. We would like to see the footage and if possible receive a copy for memories. My husband and Sinxay (God Bless) were best friends & We still see Thavisouk Phrasavath father on a weekly basis. If you could please contact me with any information I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time.

Anonymous said...

I watched the film on DVD and very much enjoyed it. The extra features were especially illuminating; the making of a film over so many years with developments in 'real time' taking place and incorporated into the film as part of the story puts this story into the realm of the experimental as well.
One thing missing from the movie is whether any of the family members worked and what employment they obtained; as first-generation immigrants it would have been interesting to see what success they had in their careers and what work they did. They seem to have gone from a flop house downtown (just as many refugees starting out may have) to a suburban bungalow, without elaboration as to how this transpired. Another point is that Kennedy appears, and Nixon, but somehow the whole 5-year-plus presidency of Lyndon Johnson which resulted in the escalation of hostilities to the level seen somehow is ignored.
All in all, an excellent film, and I will be watching it more than once. It will stand as a universal document that portrays what happens to people in any country that the US has involved itself militarily without the old-fashioned convention of a declaration of war.

RobertB

Anonymous said...

Congratulation to Thavisouk, the team producer, your family and especially your mom. You had a gut to make a world understood that the pursue of the possibility within the opportunity was real.
Vivre Lao people in peace so the rest of the world!
Boonnhong Korasack ( Dara )

Anonymous said...

I was observing and collecting the feedback from my clients when I starting to share my history. Obcause that:
" The Betrayal/Nerakhoon " was a recommendation about my beloved homeland Laos during a Secret War.
An unexpected broken heart to so many Laotian, Vietnamese, Cambodian families who had fled the country at that time in 1975 to 1980 to be Refugees in Thailand. So many beautyful girls had been raped and sent to be sold in sex slavery global market, so many young boys were disappeared into slavery labour, some where in Thailand.Thai, Lao pirates and communist patrol had murdered alot of people who had tried to escape toward unknown land. The Betrayal has part of this tragic history that so many of us can not forgive and can not forget. If we look foreward to the future , we had to let go of the past. There are alot of people would pay the price to come here, so we are still lucky to be a citizen of powerful nation.

khene said...

Congratulations to the producer, Ellen Kurus and Thavisouk Phrasavath. Good and all real story to just about average laotian family here in The US. Pround the story had been told.
As a Lao refugee I would think that the film still missed one important part ( The time we stayed in the refugee camp in Thailand, it was betrayal there as well if not worse. I would recommended to other Laotian refugee to tell. Bad really bad at the time, wonder if the adult lao refugees will agree with me. To me it will be nicer if the world would know. No political hidden here we already forgive that period, but all lao refugees should not forget.)
By the way Ms Orady Phrasavath did really nice job, wonder she had an actor experience in the Laos past. Look at her face she must have a lot of anger and stressful like me. Is she from the plateau Mahaxay?

Suzanne Seeger said...

Most beautiful film and tender care taken over so many years to bear its fruit. God bless all who were so generously a part of this film.