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Journalism of Courage
In Laos,the country surrounded by Vietnam,Cambodia and Thailand,an annual ancient festival sees rockets,as heavy as one tonne,being shot into the skies as a way to communicate with the rain gods. During the Vietnam War,Laos was the target of the heaviest US bombing campaign,earning the moniker the most bombed place on the planet. A country that turned monks into bomb disposal agents drew Australian filmmaker Kim Mordaunt to make his first feature film The Rocket,which was screened at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival on Sunday. His film was recently announced as Australias official entry to the Oscars this year.
Mordaunt visited the little known country to find himself and ended up staying in Laos for over 10 years. In Australia,people live sheltered lives,far away from the atrocities of war and such things,probably because Australia never really had a war itself. But we decided to live and work in another place, says the director,who moved there with his producer-wife,Sylvia Wilczynski,who has worked with him for over a decade.
There is a saying in the Lao language that you must find fun in life,otherwise it is not worth living, says Mordaunt. Though his film deals with a serious topic,he has treated it with drama and elements of comedy and action. The humour in the characters against a war backdrop I thought was a good way to entice the audiences towards the story, says the 46-year-old filmmaker,who has been a documentary filmmaker,cinematographer and actor before he made The Rocket.
For a film that has won awards at the Berlin Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival,Mordaunt says that the screening in Mumbai holds a special significance to him. My sisters skin colour is like yours, says Mordaunt,who was born to an Anglo father and Mauritian-Indian mother. Another screening of the film is scheduled on October 24.
sankhayan.ghosh@expressindia.com
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