Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Que no me toque un alto delante The screenplay combines local aspects of life and traditions of Laos, with a way of telling which makes it universal. The story opens in a very pleasant way, and continues to evolve throughout the film. Give it up for the boy Disamoe. He was chosen for this movie as a child of the street, without acting training. Excels in the paper. The work is very surprising, showing a display of acting abilities that promises much (if we ever get to see him again). The girl is also fine. These films, a priori,are great, because they let us spy places and realities unknown to us: in this case Laos, a place not only devastated by poverty, but by the legacy of war. A direction and a highly polished, at times almost poetic photograph, which embellishes the horrors being shown. The director is showing various aspects of the life of the "not favored" in this country, trying to maintain a balance between drama and very harsh situations on the one hand, and moments of laughter, or lightened on the other. I must say that it has perhaps predictable moments, commonplaces and more corny ones, but I think maybe were attempts to avoid falling into melodrama and total tragedy that could have been. The director could have opted for something more authentic, and not so standard. I think that in that difficulty lies the reason because this has not become a great movie; despite which it still is worth seeing. (Detail: amazing "James Brown" character) For an amazing blog, visit: quenometoque.wix.com/unaltodelante

Roland E. Zwick An unlikely underdog-story from Australia, "The Rocket" showcases the struggles of a Laotian family as they go in search of a new home after the construction of a dam forces them to abandon their native village, a situation that is emblematic of how indigenous people the world over are callously pushed aside to make way for an impersonal modern world.Young Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe), the central character in the story, comes from a culture that believes that twins are by their very nature either good or evil, and since Ahlo is himself a surviving twin (his brother having been stillborn), the family - his mild-mannered father and cantankerous, superstitious grandmother - can't quite decide whether he's a good luck charm or a bad luck charm, though they suspect he is probably the latter. This puts Ahlo in the rather awkward position of feeling like every time some calamity befalls the family, he is somehow indirectly responsible for it. The three travelers are accompanied by an elderly Laotian who, as a child, fought on the side of the Americans during the war and who's so obsessed with James Brown that he dresses like him and carries his recordings with him wherever he goes, and his feisty little niece who quickly becomes Ahlo's confidante and companion on the journey. The crux of the plot is Ahlo's attempts to win a cash prize for the best homemade rocket built out of the many un-detonated explosives that lie strewn across the countryside, a sad and painful remnant of the long-ago war that, all these years later, continues to cast an indomitable shadow over the region. It's a contest with its roots planted partly in science and partly in traditional superstition, since the goal is to appease the gods by seeding the clouds in the hope of making it rain.Improbable as it is at times, the movie demonstrates that, even among the have-nots in this world, there is often still a caste system designed to keep a person from advancing in life, but that with a little ingenuity, determination and a few handy resources, it's hard to keep an optimistic and spirited boy down.

billcr12 A little boy has the misfortune of being the surviving twin in Laos, where tradition holds that he has 50/50 chance of bringing bad luck to all those around him. Ahlo lives in a village with his mother, father, and grandmother, when news of a new hydro electric dam disrupts their lives by uprooting them to another, supposedly better place. While dragging all of their possessions up a steep hill, tragedy strikes, and of course the young boy is blamed, especially by his superstitious grandma. They amble on to a town which holds a rocket festival every year with a cash prize. Ahlo decides to build a rocket to prove that he isn't always the messenger of doom. The actor playing Ahlo is tremendous, as is the little girl, Kia, his best friend in the film. Check IMDb credits for their long and difficult names. Rocket will have you jumping up and cheering for this underdog to finally be accepted. One of the ten best movies of the year, and severely overlooked.

conannz I saw The Rocket at a film festival just yesterday. I was impressed by the two young leads who convey as much from their faces as what is said. An early sequence where the boy - Ahlo swims underwater in a large dam past sunken statues conveys much about the trade off between the hydro schemes and the forced relocation of villagers in the way. These dams flood hundreds of square kilometres and provide the context for this story in which Ahlo's family is forced to relocate. These large dams including the Xayaburi Dam ( in progress) will affect the lives of more than 60m people in the region and looks to be an environmental disaster in the making. Wisely the story focuses on the 2 children but the politics in Laos deserve more scrutiny. The other key part of this story is that Laos was the most bombed country in the world with more than 75m unexploded bombs ( out of 260m dropped) still buried or half buried there as a result of the Vietnam war. These bombs are referred to as "sleeping tigers" in the film and are a very real constraint on the health and safety of the local people.A secondary theme in the film explores in part the Hmong minority. It is not clear in the film but it looks like Uncle Purple may have been part of that conflict. While we discover more about Uncle Purple in the film that story is only sketched out.What makes this film great is the 2 young leads , Ahlo and Kia who despite all of the disruption around them manage to have wonderful moments in the markets and at the Rocket Festival.I saw this at a film festival and the director said they had based the film in part upon a documentary called Bomb Harvest which he had made earlier. They also attended an actual rocket festival and recreated that for the film. They wanted to give insights from the Laotian point of view which they succeeded on despite this being an Australian film project. The Rocket mixes real life in Laos today with hope for the future. I would see it again for sure.