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2008-0215 - BKK Post - Good morning Laos

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Realtime/15Feb2008_real001.php

Good morning Laos

Touted as the first real Lao movie in 33 years, 'Sabaidee
Luang Prabang' could prove the launch pad for a cultural revival

KONG RITHDEE

ALL PHOTOS
Sabaidee Luang Prabang stars Bangkok-based Australian-Lao
Ananda Everingham and Lao beauty queen Khamlek Pallawong. The
movie was shot throughout Laos, from Pak Se to Vientiane and
Luang Prabang.

The country was once an ambiguity. Now it's a hot bed of
fascination, a place with an oddly magnetic pull, so close yet
so far, so similar yet so foreign. Forever landlocked but no
longer shell-shocked, the Lao People's Democratic Republic has
shrugged off its enigmatic past and looks set for a present
full of hurly-burly. Nowadays, Bangkok hipsters find few
cities cooler than Luang Prabang; our new foreign minister
plans a visit to Vientiane next week; the nation will host the
next SEA Games; the R3A highway now links Thailand and China
via Laos, touted as the new golden economic triangle.

Suddenly remembered after years of being forgotten, Laos is
also now ready to have some fun. So how about the first "real"
Lao movie in 33 years?

Principally a curiosity, but hopefully a seed of cultural
revival, Sabaidee Luang Prabang is going through the final
phase of post-production in a Bangkok editing room. The film
bears the Lao flag, but its true lineage is a heady
cross-pollination of different personalities and cultures:
Sabaidee Luang Prabang is co-directed by Kiev-educated Laotian
Anusorn Sirisakda and Thai filmmaker Sakchai Deenan (who's
originally from the province of Surin in the Northeast), and
stars red-hot Bangkok-based Laotian-Australian actor Ananda
Everingham and Vientiane beauty queen Khamlek Pallawong.

The money came from both sides of the Mekhong with Lao Art
Media, a major record label in Laos, making its first foray
into moviemaking together with its Thai partner, Sparta, a
production house in the Laos-bordering province of Ubon
Ratchathani. So, to be precise, it should be called the first
ever Lao-Thai film.

After adopting communism in 1975, Laos virtually ceased its
moviemaking activities. The three films made in the past 33
years - Thung Hai Hin, Bua Daeng and Krua Payachang - were
funded by the Lao and Vietnamese governments, and invariably
told nationalistic stories of communist victories over foreign
enemies.

"We think of Sabaidee Luang Prabang as a Lao feature film, the
first to be privately funded since 1975," director Anusorn
says on the phone from his Vientiane office. "We wrote the
story together [with Thai director Sakchai], and the main
market will be Thailand. What we want to do is show the beauty
of Laos, and of course the film will greatly benefit from the
growing fame of Luang Prabang.

"It's part of government policy to encourage more productions
of movies and TV series, to play a role in improving the economy."

It's not just the famous city, a World Heritage site, that
features in the film. Sabaidee Luang Prabang is a road movie
that spans the north-south stretch of Laos, from the delta of
Pak Se to the capital Vientiane and magical Luang Prabang.
Ananda, seemingly the busiest actor in Thailand, plays a
character loosely moulded after himself. Sorn is a
Bangkok-based Laotian-Australian journalist who travels to
Laos and develops a special feeling towards the country of his
father (in real-life, Ananda's father is Australian, his
mother Laotian) and especially towards his female guide,
called Noi.

Initially planning to leave right after completing his
assignment, Sorn calls his Lao dad and is told to visit his
home village in the northern region, so he and Noi hit the
road together in a cross-country voyage to find his roots.

>From the trailer, Sabaidee appears to have the sweetened air
of a romantic story, and if there are any particular Lao
elements in it besides the location, they don't come across in
the promo reel.

Co-directors: Laotian Anusorn Sirisakda (left) and Thai
Sakchai Deenan.

"I'm an Isan guy," says Thai co-director Sakchai. "I've been
to Laos several times, and I really like the place and the people.

"Originally I wanted to make a soul-searching story about a
half-Laotian character who goes to Laos for the first time.
But, well, that sounds boring. So in the end Anusorn and I
made it into a love story. But still, I believe that having
Ananda in the lead role gives the film a certain depth."

A certain depth, as well as a boost for marketing prospects
and cultural authenticity. The 25-year-old actor, who appeared
in four films last year and has five more waiting to open in
2008, says that despite dozens of scripts landing on his
doorstep over the past year, he was exceptionally eager to
play Sorn because of his own Lao connection. Reputedly one of
the most expensive stars at work in the region, Ananda slashed
his fee to almost nothing and came on board as one of the
film's producers.

"It gave me a special energy to be in a production like this,"
says Ananda, who was born in Thailand, carries an Australian
passport and visited Laos for the first time 10 years ago.

"It's a small movie," he continues. "We didn't have much
money, so we hit the road and shot our scenes along the way.
Sometimes we just knocked on a stranger's door and asked if we
could shoot a scene in their house, and wherever we shot it
became an event for the whole town.

"As a half-Laotian, I feel a connection to the country and I
want to know more about it. This film is very personal to me.
In my mind, I want Sabaidee Luang Prabang to become more than
just a movie: I want it to become something that can represent
Laos, something that the country can be proud of. As a matter
of fact, a lot of Thai people still look down on Laos, and it
stings me sometimes to think about that."

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR

It has stung quite a number of people, actually. In the brutal
hierarchy of post-colonial snobbery, Laos seems to occupy,
unfairly, a lower rung of the ladder. As Thais complain that
Westerners look down on us, so Thais in Bangkok look down on
Thais in Isan, and many Thais, maybe out of habit rather than
malice, view Laotians as an inferior class. Despite being
sensitive to the way Westerners portray us in film, we've
demonstrated on more than a few occasions how we can be so
insensitive in the way we portray our neighbours on film.

Two years ago, the Lao ambassador to Bangkok came out to
criticise the way his countrymen were caricatured in the film
Mak Teh (Lucky Losers), a simple comedy in which the Lao
national football team are portrayed as a bunch of gullible
clowns. The case sparked a furore among Laotians and prompted
an intervention from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The
filmmakers issued an apology, erased the Lao national flag
from jerseys of the characters, and re-dubbed every reference
to Laos as a new, fictional nation, Awee.

Then last year, just when Sakchai was proposing the idea of
Sabaidee Luang Prabang to Anusorn and Lao Art Media, a group
of Laotian women complained about about the Thai soap opera
Pleng Rak Song Fang Kong (Love Songs Across The Mekhong),
which featured a love story between a Thai man and a Lao girl.
The protesters claimed that the portrayals of Laotian girls as
men-baiting seducers were detrimental to their image.

To shoot a movie in Laos, a company needs to submit the script
to the Ministry of Culture. In part because Sakchai and
Anusorn were aware of recent controversies, their script, in a
way, had already been self-censored, and they got the approval
with only minor changes - or "comments", as Sakchai puts it.

"Though we're close neighbours, a film that involves both Thai
and Lao characters can be sensitive," says Sakchai. "But we
got the permission all right. On the set, there were Lao
officials present - not to supervise us but to give
suggestions, and their comments were very useful in our
attempts to accurately depict Lao culture. It's the same when
a foreign production comes to shoot in Thailand, we have an
official accompanying them."

"We're telling a good story here," adds Anusorn. "So there was
no problem at all."

In Vientiane there are only two movie theatres, which mostly
show Thai films. When they set out to make Sabaidee Luang
Prabang, both directors knew that the main market would be
Thai audiences. And with some luck, the movie may travel
internationally - if the tag "first Lao film" carries any
weight among festival programmers. At the moment, Sakchai is
pondering a few options, but it's yet to be decided how and
when the movie will be distributed in Thailand.

"It would be impossible to make the movie by relying on a Lao
audience," Anusorn says, laughing. "At least not right now."

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