Nerakhoun: The Betrayal
credits:
Directors: Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk PhrasavathWork-in-Progress screening
USA | 100 mins | DigiBeta
IN PERSON (at select screenings): Ellen Kuras, Thavi Phrasavath, Ellen Bruno
Comprised of interviews, archival footage, and verite sequences spanning two decades, this work-in-progress documentary—a collaboration between famed cinematographer Ellen Kuras and its primary subject, Thavisouk (Thavi) Phrasavath—uses one family’s emotional story to expose the disastrous effects of U.S. involvement in Laos.
Though the U.S. government has never owned up to it, it conducted military operations in Laos during the Vietnam War, taking advantage of the country’s strategic location near Vietnam, Cambodia and China. Those who had to pay for this covert campaign, of course, were the Laotian people, citizens of an ostensibly neutral country. As Thavi puts it, “The very first thing I ever knew [was that] my country was at war and my father was a soldier.” When the U.S. promptly withdrew from Laos, it left its erstwhile allies to fend for themselves against the Communist Pathet Lao, a decidedly unfriendly government. This resulted in the disappearance of Thavi’s father. Constantly threatened with imprisonment or execution because of their patriarch’s allegiance to the Americans, the remaining Phrasavath family members escaped to Thailand and eventually the U.S. Rather than the bountiful paradise they expected, they found a hostile environment: a place of violence, gangs, apathy and broken promises.
Deftly weaving history, commentary and poignant real-life drama, Kuras and Phrasavath’s film, which strikes a topical chord in another time of war, balances the personal and the political, giving “betrayal” two equally tragic meanings: from one country to another and from a father to his family.
—Jonathan L. Knapp
Nerakhoun: The Betrayal is funded by CAAM.
