GALO: This story, about a boy proving his worth to his family and himself, is so moving and deeply personal. And you not only directed it, but you also wrote it as well. What made you tackle this particular story that has such strong themes of self-discovery and perseverance?

KM: After making a documentary with Bomb Harvest, and then the community saying you have to make another film from the Laos perspective, we then tried to think of a story to tell but we knew it had to be a very personal story. The first thing that came to my and the producer’s mind was a story about loss and reconciliation, and since we had both lost parents at a very young age, it was very real to us what that means for a young person. Really, that’s the core of the story, and everything else is sort of a backdrop and a visual metaphor for this little person trying to deal with the loss of a parent, reconciling his remaining family and not feeling as though he has caused this loss. In a way, we try to start from a very personal place even though we are not Lao.

I think there is a shared human experience on this planet, and people all around the world experience loss and have to deal with it and have to go through it. And as awful as it is at times, often, beautiful things can come out of it. You meet other people who have had losses, and there can be an unspoken connection and great positivity that comes out of it. That was the inspiration for The Rocket. And then, of course, Laos being the beautiful place it is with such a rich history and mythology, there was just so much metaphor to draw on and to backdrop the story.

GALO: Most of the actors in the film are not professional actors, correct?

KM: Yes, that is correct.

GALO: Why go with untrained actors for this story? What is it like to create a story with inexperienced actors in such an immersive environment?

KM: It was a huge challenge; the casting went on for a very long time. During casting, particularly with the young female role, I was presented with some very experienced child actors from Thailand who have Lao heritage, and the more I saw young people, what impressed me in the end was not whether they had acting experience but rather their sense of self — if they had a strong sense of self and if they had a strong imagination. If those two things [are] there, if they are willing to share a part of their life with me, then we can go somewhere with this.

GALO: The two children whom you cast, Sitthiphon Disamoe and Loungnam Kaosainam, are just spectacular and play off each other with a very organic chemistry. In particular, the scenes where they bond over their late mothers and push each other to strive for more are extraordinary. What was it like working with them?

KM: The little girl we’d been looking for quite some [time] — on the streets, in farms and rural areas, villages, everywhere. When I came across her, it was really her independence as a person that impressed me because she was strong and could rival any boy. And she had this incredible history behind her eye — this very real thought process that would happen when I walked her through situations, which was very cinematic and powerful. It’s truthful, that’s the bottom line.

With the boy, again, we looked far and wide, and then I heard, through a casting agent in Thailand, about a street kid. He had been a street kid for two years and when I met him, I thought he was an extraordinary person. He could do anything, he could solve anything — he was a little survivor. He really aligned with the character that I was writing. But the more time I spent with him, the more I thought I’ve got to start rewriting because this person could be such a strong person in his own right. So I did a lot of rewriting, and the boy became Ahlo, my main character. Both of the kids are extraordinary people, and in the end, it was just about whether they were willing to delve into their emotional selves and to reveal.

GALO: You’ve mentioned a couple challenges you faced in making The Rocket, but the film has such a large scope and scale as the characters travel from place to place. What was it like to film from location to location? Was that a big challenge for you and the cast and crew?

KM: It was very difficult. We didn’t have enough money as usual, especially because it was a foreign language film set outside of Australia. It was hugely challenging because we were lugging the crew around and kids around, and you lose time every time you travel. It was a fierce schedule and we just had to be very organized. We had a terrific crew in Thailand, Laos and Australia, and the cast didn’t have a bad bone in their body. So really, that’s how the film happened — just a lot of kindness and good will.

GALO: It is evident that this is a very passionate project for you. So, in that respect, what does it mean to have this film presented at the Tribeca Film Festival?

KM: It’s a dream come true, really. This was our first choice for the American premiere, and the distributor’s first choice. We knew that New York was a hugely diverse, creative-thinking place, and being at Tribeca, it just feels like it is a festival about courage and healing and positivity and breaking boundaries, and that is very much what our film is about.

“The Rocket” opened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 19, with its last public screening on Wednesday, April 24.

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Featured image: Loungnam Kaosainam as Kia and director Kim Mordaunt. Photo Credit: Tom Greenwood.