BETRAYAL

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) is a 2008 documentary about a Laotian family who emigrates and moves to Brooklyn. The protagonist is Thavisouk, also known as Thavi. The plot follows 20 years of Thavi's life and the life of his family. Their trials and tribulations are clearly illustrated in the film.

Thavi and his family struggle to fit in to American culture and his family struggle to get comfortable with their new surroundings. They can't seem to decide whether it would have been better to have stayed in Laos, which is in near ruins because of the reckless dropping of American bombs. The story thickens when Thavi's father comes to visit them in Brooklyn, and at first it looks like they will have a father figure, but they soon find out he is leaving them for a new family. This causes Thavisouk to selflessly assume the patriarchal position in the family.

The film reveals how important the father is in Laotian culture, because in the case of Thavisouk's mother, who should be angry at her ex husband for moving on to a new family, she instead eats her words. She wants to protect the children by allowing them to know who their father is. This is contrary to the probable outcome of a similar situation, with American perpetrators. In that situation the mother would most likely shield her children from such treachery and would limit their contact with the father. My personal connection is that this is a counterexample of how my family operates, I have two happy and successful parents that compliment each other and so this helps me appreciate that a little more than I have in the past.