The origin of the drama Buoyancy can be traced back to when Australian filmmaker Rodd Rathjen came across an article a few years ago about Cambodian workers and their life on a Thai fishing trawler. He became riveted by the unbelievable story and upon more research, he said in a statement: “The scale of modern slavery and exploitation in Thailand is vast and hard to grasp.”
Written and directed by Rathjen, Buoyancy follows a spirited Cambodian teenager Chakra (Sarm Heng) who works the rice fields with his family but is looking for independence. He seeks the help of a local broker who said that they can get him paid work in a Thai factory. He heads to Thailand in hopes to find his fortuitous independence but when he gets there, he and his newfound friend Kea (Mony Ros), discover they’ve been duped. Along with other Cambodians and Burmese, they...
Written and directed by Rathjen, Buoyancy follows a spirited Cambodian teenager Chakra (Sarm Heng) who works the rice fields with his family but is looking for independence. He seeks the help of a local broker who said that they can get him paid work in a Thai factory. He heads to Thailand in hopes to find his fortuitous independence but when he gets there, he and his newfound friend Kea (Mony Ros), discover they’ve been duped. Along with other Cambodians and Burmese, they...
- 9/11/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Buoyancy Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Rodd Rathjien Writer: Rodd Rathjien Cast: Sarm Heng, Thanawut Kasro, Mony Ros, Saichia Wongwirot, Yothin Udomsanti, Chan Visal Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 9/2/20 Opens: September 11, 2020 Watching this movie, I couldn’t help thinking of the line from […]
The post Buoyancy Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Buoyancy Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/6/2020
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
"When will our debt be paid?" Kino Lorber has released an official US trailer for an acclaimed indie thriller titled Buoyancy, marking the feature directorial debut of Australian filmmaker Rodd Rathjen. This was Australia's submission to the Academy Awards for 2019, after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year. Buoyancy tells the story of 14-year-old Cambodian boy named Chakra who is sold as a slave laborer to the captain of a Thai fishing vessel. The captain's rule is cruel and arbitrary, and eventually he realizes the only way to truly survive is to fight back. "This story of a Cambodian teenager sold into forced labor on a Thai fishing boat is a passionate testimony against social injustice and a moving coming-of-age tale about a boy whose humanity is put to the test." The film stars Sarm Heng as Chakra, with Thanawut Ketsaro, Mony Ros, Saichia Wongwirot, Yothin Udomsanti,...
- 8/14/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The sobering statistic that closes Rodd Rathjen’s impressive debut “Buoyancy,” recently named Australia’s submission in the Oscars’ International Feature category, informs us that currently around 200,000 boys and men are believed to be essentially enslaved to the Thai fishing industry. Many of them have, like Rathjen’s teenage lead character, been trafficked away from home, lured by the false promise of better prospects before being tricked into a hell-or-high-water servitude from which there is no escape. That number is staggering, and that Rathjen was inspired by the accounts of real-life survivors gives the film its raw authenticity, forceful pacing and moral clarity. But this macro-mosaic effect also contributes to a certain blankness in terms of the more intimate character drama that should pump blood and emotion through the film’s veins, as though .
Here, that’s 14-year-old Chakra, who dreams of leaving his hardscrabble rice-farming life in rural Cambodia.
Here, that’s 14-year-old Chakra, who dreams of leaving his hardscrabble rice-farming life in rural Cambodia.
- 12/10/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Among the record 92 submissions this year, 27 titles are directed or co-directed by women. There are six documentaries in the mix, as well as two animated features. Moreover, for the first time, Ghana and Uzbekistan are each fielding an entry. However, Nigeria’s submission was disqualified by the Academy as being mostly in the English language. Here’s a guide to the films, including logline and sales or production contact.
Albania
“The Delegation”
Director: Bujar Alimani
Logline: In autumn 1990,
a political prisoner is secretly taken out of jail to meet the head of the European delegation investigating human-rights violations. But nothing goes according to plan.
Key Cast: Viktor Zhusti, Ndriçim Xhepa, Xhevdet Feri
Sales: Art Film
Algeria
“Papicha”
Director: Mounia Meddour
Logline: A female student rebels against the bans set by radicals during the civil war and plans a fashion show.
Key Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda
Sales:...
Albania
“The Delegation”
Director: Bujar Alimani
Logline: In autumn 1990,
a political prisoner is secretly taken out of jail to meet the head of the European delegation investigating human-rights violations. But nothing goes according to plan.
Key Cast: Viktor Zhusti, Ndriçim Xhepa, Xhevdet Feri
Sales: Art Film
Algeria
“Papicha”
Director: Mounia Meddour
Logline: A female student rebels against the bans set by radicals during the civil war and plans a fashion show.
Key Cast: Lyna Khoudri, Shirine Boutella, Amira Hilda Douaouda
Sales:...
- 11/6/2019
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Born in Colbinabbin, a small town in central Victoria, Australia in 1981, Rodd Rathjen graduated with an honours degree in film and television from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2010. His short film Tau Seru, which he directed in India, premiered in the Semaine de la Critique at Cannes in 2013; it went on to screen at over 50 festivals worldwide and won a number of international awards. In 2014, he participated in Berlinale Talents. Buoyancy is his debut feature film.
On the occasion of “Buoyancy” screening at Berlin International Film Festival, we speak with him about the purpose of the film, modern slavery, the casting process, the cinematography and other topics
“Buoyancy” won the Panorama Prize from the Ecumenical Jury in Berlinale. Are you proud of this success, and how do you think it will help you in your career?
We were thrilled and humbled to be acknowledged by the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale.
On the occasion of “Buoyancy” screening at Berlin International Film Festival, we speak with him about the purpose of the film, modern slavery, the casting process, the cinematography and other topics
“Buoyancy” won the Panorama Prize from the Ecumenical Jury in Berlinale. Are you proud of this success, and how do you think it will help you in your career?
We were thrilled and humbled to be acknowledged by the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale.
- 3/8/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Winner of the Panorama Prize from the Ecumenical Jury in Berlinale, “Buoyancy” is one of the most thorough and dramatic depictions of the forced labor cycle (slave trade in essence) we have seen on cinema, and a great debut for Australian Rodd Rathjen.
Buoyancy was screened at
Berlin Film Festival
The protagonist of the story is Chakra, a 14-year-old boy who works in the Cambodian rice fields with the rest of the members of his rather large family. His future seems predetermined, but the fights with his father (“why did you had to have so many children?” he asks at one point) and a suggestion of a friend from football, of the possibility of earning money in the factories of Thailand, convince the boy that he has to escape. His dreams for a better life, however, are quickly shattered. As he has no money to pay the people who move them to Thailand,...
Buoyancy was screened at
Berlin Film Festival
The protagonist of the story is Chakra, a 14-year-old boy who works in the Cambodian rice fields with the rest of the members of his rather large family. His future seems predetermined, but the fights with his father (“why did you had to have so many children?” he asks at one point) and a suggestion of a friend from football, of the possibility of earning money in the factories of Thailand, convince the boy that he has to escape. His dreams for a better life, however, are quickly shattered. As he has no money to pay the people who move them to Thailand,...
- 2/26/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
‘Buoyancy’.
Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy has been awarded a prize from the Ecumenical Jury after its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Representing Interfilm and Signis, the international film organisations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches, the jury honours the directors whose films succeed in portraying actions or human experiences that are in keeping with the Gospels or in sensitising viewers to spiritual, human or social values.
Rathjen won a cash prize of €2,500 for the drama set in rural Cambodia which follows 14-year-old Chakra (Sarm Heng), who sets off to escape his family’s poverty but is enslaved aboard a Thai fishing trawler. Squalor and cruelty threaten to crush his spirit but he finds the courage to break the chains.
Out of 45 titles from 38 countries which screened in the festival’s Panorama section, the jury chose Buoyancy as an exquisitely-crafted debut feature which serves as an...
Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy has been awarded a prize from the Ecumenical Jury after its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Representing Interfilm and Signis, the international film organisations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches, the jury honours the directors whose films succeed in portraying actions or human experiences that are in keeping with the Gospels or in sensitising viewers to spiritual, human or social values.
Rathjen won a cash prize of €2,500 for the drama set in rural Cambodia which follows 14-year-old Chakra (Sarm Heng), who sets off to escape his family’s poverty but is enslaved aboard a Thai fishing trawler. Squalor and cruelty threaten to crush his spirit but he finds the courage to break the chains.
Out of 45 titles from 38 countries which screened in the festival’s Panorama section, the jury chose Buoyancy as an exquisitely-crafted debut feature which serves as an...
- 2/17/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
‘Buoyancy’ cinematographer Michael Latham (Photo credit Rafael Winer © Causeway Films)
Four or five years ago writer-director Rodd Rathjen read a story in an environmental journal about forced labour and exploitation of children in Thailand’s fishing industry.
He was so shocked by the revelations of trauma and hardship he decided he wanted to make a feature film which tells the stories of “people whose voices are not being heard.”
The result is Buoyancy, his feature film debut which will have its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the drama centres on 14-year-old Chakra, who is forced to work on a fishing trawler. He soon realises his only hope of freedom is to become as violent as his captors.
Veteran Thai casting director Non Jungmeier found Sarm Heng,...
Four or five years ago writer-director Rodd Rathjen read a story in an environmental journal about forced labour and exploitation of children in Thailand’s fishing industry.
He was so shocked by the revelations of trauma and hardship he decided he wanted to make a feature film which tells the stories of “people whose voices are not being heard.”
The result is Buoyancy, his feature film debut which will have its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the drama centres on 14-year-old Chakra, who is forced to work on a fishing trawler. He soon realises his only hope of freedom is to become as violent as his captors.
Veteran Thai casting director Non Jungmeier found Sarm Heng,...
- 1/31/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Kea (Mony Ros), Chakra (Sarm Heng) and Rom Ran (Thanawut Kasro) in ‘Buoyancy’ © 2019 Causeway Films, photo credit: Rafael Winer.
Writer-director Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy, a drama set in rural Cambodia that follows Chakra, a 14-year-old boy enslaved on a fishing trawler, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the film will screen in the Panorama section among 45 titles from 38 countries.
It is said to be the first feature film to shine a light on the crisis of trafficking and slavery in the fishing industries of South-East Asia.
As If reported, Damon Gameau’s feature doc 2040 will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section.
Showcasing 29 features, 16 documentary formats and 19 directorial debuts, Panorama 2019 will present a controversial, political, and provocative program,...
Writer-director Rodd Rathjen’s debut feature Buoyancy, a drama set in rural Cambodia that follows Chakra, a 14-year-old boy enslaved on a fishing trawler, will have its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Produced by Causeway Films’ Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh in association with Cambodia’s Anupheap Productions and Melbourne-based Definition Films, the film will screen in the Panorama section among 45 titles from 38 countries.
It is said to be the first feature film to shine a light on the crisis of trafficking and slavery in the fishing industries of South-East Asia.
As If reported, Damon Gameau’s feature doc 2040 will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Generation Kplus section.
Showcasing 29 features, 16 documentary formats and 19 directorial debuts, Panorama 2019 will present a controversial, political, and provocative program,...
- 1/21/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres.
The final titles for the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Panorama programme have been revealed.
Among the new additions is Light Of My Life, directed by and starring Casey Affleck and co-starring Elisabeth Moss.
Titles revealed back in December include Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, Seamus Murphy’s Pj Harvey documentary A Dog Called Money and Rob Garver’s documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres. There are 29 features, 16 documentaries and 19 directorial debuts.
The full list...
The final titles for the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Panorama programme have been revealed.
Among the new additions is Light Of My Life, directed by and starring Casey Affleck and co-starring Elisabeth Moss.
Titles revealed back in December include Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, Seamus Murphy’s Pj Harvey documentary A Dog Called Money and Rob Garver’s documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.
The final Panorama selection includes 45 films from 38 countries, including 34 world premieres. There are 29 features, 16 documentaries and 19 directorial debuts.
The full list...
- 1/21/2019
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
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