TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

On Screen: 4:30pm or 7:30pm (You Pick!)

ArcLight La Jolla (Auditoriums 4 & 5)

Cinema Chat and Introduction begins 30 minutes prior to screenings

Discussion follows screenings

Australia's Oscar Submission, Best Foreign Language Film

Audience Award, Best Film—Tribeca Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival Melbourne Film Festival, AFI Fest, Calgary Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, Kosovo Film Festival, Leeds Film Festival

THE ROCKET

An audience favorite everywhere it plays, Australia's submission to the Academy Awards® (a co-production with Laos and Thailand) is both a rapturous crowd-pleasing comedy and a surprisingly resonant, tough little movie about the tensions between the traditional way of life of indigenous peoples and the development imperatives of government and industry.

According to Laotian tradition, 10-year-old Ahio is cursed by virtue of being born a twin - though only his mother and his grandmother know it, having covered up the death of his brother in childbirth.

When a succession of tragedies befalls his village and his family, though, his granny can't keep it a secret any longer. Could he really be to blame for the dam project that forces them off their ancestral land? And everything else? The irrepressible Ahio refuses to believe it, but even his dad harbors doubts as the mischievous, enterprising kid keeps landing in hot water.

Only an orphaned playmate and her alcoholic uncle - a Vietnam war veteran who models himself after singer James Brown - accept the boy for who he is. But when a DIY rocket-building competition offers a chance of redemption, everyone's trust will be pressed to the limit...

PLEASE NOTE: THE ROCKET is in Lao Language with English Subtitles

Running Time: 96 Minutes Not Rated.