Product Details

• Directors: Ellen Kuras
• Format: Anamorphic, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Cinema Guild
• DVD Release Date: September 1, 2009
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002EBRFAG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,300 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Betrayal" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Maya Entertainment Grp Release Date: 11/10/2009 Run time: 126 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When The Great White Eagle Came, March 7, 2011

By 

Albert Doyle (Sanibel, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Betrayal (DVD)

Nerakhoon is the Laotian word for "betrayed". The movie is filmed in semi-documentary style but with a trained narrative that evokes the spirit of the Viet Nam nightmare as seen from the side of a humble Laotian family. As background we are told the tale of a Laotian prophecy warning the asian people of Laos that some day an Eagle will come and visit the country with great tumult. Thavi's father was in the Laotian military and was soon helping the CIA target communist forces in the jungle and villages for bombing. Thavi recounts horror stories of war and seeing villagers vaporized as they were riding their bikes and "burned to white powder". As a child, with a father in the army, he simply resigned himself to the fact this was life. The next phase comes and soon the US pulls out abruptly leaving those who assisted the US alone and on their own overnight. Soon the Pathet Lao descend and sort out who collaborated and send them to work camps to fill in huge B-52 bomb craters with small woven baskets. In the meantime Thavi and his family are left to fend for themselves.

After escaping to Thailand Thavi, his mother, and family are lucky enough to be granted asylum in the US. Soon they are swooping in over the completely exotic landscape of New York City as the jet lands at night with a huge and stunning sea of lights beneath. Once there however, they find the emerald city of dreams they imagined soon turns out to be a classic modern Dickensian ordeal with the family entering a 1970's urban decay landscape with all its accompanying problems like crime, drugs, and poverty. The depravities and insensitivities the family faces in Brooklyn are shocking to the contemplative asians and the mother is immediately taken aback at what they encounter. Fellow Laotian refugees aid them but soon the mother regrets leaving Laos as her children become enculturated and the mother laments their flight from Laotian values. In short, she wonders if they hadn't traded away more than it was worth and begins to regret leaving Laos.

The movie's dual symbolism is the "betrayal" of loyal Laotian fighters by the US after they pulled-out of Laos, but also in the betrayal of Thavi's family by the father who managed to escape the death camps and get to Florida where he soon created a new life and family. The sadness that pervades the movie is emphasized by betrayal at all passes as far as Thavi is concerned. He finally manages to locate his father but his father ignores them and returns to his new family. The main message is were it not for the prophecy of the great eagle Thavi and his family would have led more peaceful and productive lives back in the asian culture of jungley Laos with its Buddhist-type serenity.

On a personal note I happened by accident to visit someone who by total coincidence had Thavi as a neighbor in suburban New York. We happened upon some fresh striped bass from the spring Hudson River run and Thavi volunteered for his wife to prepare it. She made a tasty, typically SE asian mildly-spiced green vegetables with fish chunks. It was delicious. Thavi told me this is how we would prepare it in Laos. I was also lucky enough to then attend the premier at the Brooklyn Academy with the director Ellen Kuras and Thavi speaking about the movie. As tragic as Thavi's tale is he's an intelligent gentleman who has lived in much more interesting times than his suburban neighbors. Times that were not under his control.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will make you cry!, September 2, 2009

By 

Comrad General (Tx, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Betrayal (DVD)

I watched it on YouTube and it is Awesome piece of work. I am buying DVD from Amazon