Interesting encounter last night with the challenging work parameters of Lao film makers. Bangkok’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club screened “At the Horizon”; one of the first Lao productions to be shown internationally.
The film is made by Anysay Keola – under the flag of his own production house Lao New Wave Cinema Production – as part of his graduate work at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Although filming with a Canon DSL camera, Keola manages to achieve remarkable shots, curious angles, and tells his story inventively and lucidly.
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The story revolves around Sin [1], a spoiled young man with no concern for anyone or anything but his fast lane life. The opening shot is of Sin tied to a chair in what looks to be an old storage facility. At this point the audience knows as little as the captive, and so we are soon reverted back to the storyline proper.
Early on, during a conversation with one of his friends, we get the sense that there’s something dark in Sin’s recent past which had to be settled by his rich father. This past event, however, is knit into the proceedings of the film’s storyline, leaving a full understanding of the plot until the latter quarter of the film.
During a night out, Sin’s arrogant attitude gets him into trouble, and a car chase ensues. His chasers catch up with him, but are interrupted by a mute man on an old motorbike who arrives at the scene. Sin is at this point injured and asking the man for help. The man, however, responds by knocking him out cold using his crash helmet. Only later, when all the dots are connected, does the involvement of all characters become coherent.
The film’s moral is one of repenting one’s misdeeds, and coming to understand that having material wealth does not make your well-being more important than that of the next man. Coming from a Buddhist tradition, the film-maker is telling a story of seeking atonement; that deeds and misdeeds have consequences whether they materialise as repentance or the hand of someone whose life you’ve affected adversely comes down upon you to strike. It is a story which presents a number of human emotions, and it’s well told.
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Film production in Laos is not easy, the young film-maker assures us. The government doesn’t want the country to be portrayed negatively, making it hard to get a permit for a film which contains violence and guns or even tattoos. Anysay Keola explained that he managed to procure a shooting permit by pledging that he was only going to show the film to his university supervisor. A screening permit was initially not forthcoming.
Without a screening permit, and no tentative prospects of getting one’s money worth, financial sponsors were hard to come by. Furthermore, out of the small budget of $15.000, some $60 had to be paid daily to the government official who was required to be on set at all times, just to see what the crew got up to.
The first draft of the film was completed, and the Lao cinema authorities “loved it”, so the film-maker Keola. A screening permit was granted, and the film is set for public release in Laos very soon. Interestingly with a couple of “little” catches; guns have to be blurred out, and the ending will have to be changed.
Right towards the end, Sin’s rich father catches up with his son’s abductor and sets his goons on him. Keola explains that Lao authorities do not want to portray that the rich can get away with murder, and insist on a final scene with this particular character being taken away to prison.
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I’m far from being a qualified film critic. But in a time when the special effects confine the actual storyline to more of a footnote, I found this small production refreshing. Anysay Keola has done his graduate work well, and has his work cut out for the coming months, trying to enter the film into as many international film festivals as they can afford.
If the film gets picked up, and screened at a theatre near you, make sure not to miss it – for a story from Laos.
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Find the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5Qo9nSkovU
[1] The film-maker, Anysay Keola, told the audience that the name Sin – being a very common Lao name – had a nice ring to him also because of its meaning in English.
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