Name: Satu – Year of the Rabbit Review: A Coming-of-Age Journey Across Laos
Item: Satu - Year of the Rabbit
Author: Arash Nahandian

In the lush countryside of Laos, a story unfolds between two young travelers. We meet Satu, a boy left as an infant at a Buddhist monastery. Though raised by kindly monks, Satu feels longing to know his origins. Meanwhile, Bo, a talented young photographer, flees her hometown seeking inspiration. When their paths cross at the monastery, Bo sees in Satu a subject that could aid her dreams of studying journalism.

Both sense opportunity in joining forces. Bo will guide their adventure across northern Laos as Satu hopes to find answers about his mother. Behind the camera is British filmmaker Joshua Trigg, in his directorial debut. Through his lens, we view vivid landscapes little seen outside Laos.

From misty mountains to vibrant temple grounds, Trigg immerses us in the beauty nourishing Satu and Bo’s journey. While Trigg hails from Wales, he knows these locales well from years spent across Asia. His feel for the local places and people brings an immediacy missing from travelogues.

We join Satu and Bo as two spirits yearning. Though young, each carries burdens and harbors ambitions beyond their village borders. By traveling together across Laos, might they gain more than they seek—and reveal to ourselves the universal in their intimate story?

Through Laos by Land and River

We begin in a small Buddhist monastery, where a young boy named Satu has lived since being left there as an infant. Meanwhile, in a nearby village, a spirited teenager named Bo dreams of becoming a photojournalist. Seeking to escape her difficult home life, Bo sets her bicycle wheels toward adventure.

As chance would have it, Bo’s journey brings her to the monastery. There she encounters Satu, now wondering about the mother who abandoned him so long ago. A letter from the monks holds clues to where she may be found. Recognizing a story within Satu’s quest, Bo offers to accompany him north through Laos to search.

Their travels are not without obstacles. Forest paths prove longer than expected, and heavy rains transform dirt roads into muddy slogfests. On two wheels or four, they push ever closer to Satu’s goal. Along the way, their unlikely friendship blossoms like countryside flowers.

In a small village, clues emerge of Satu’s mother’s fate. But her whereabouts remain elusive as the landscape. Undeterred, Satu and Bo broaden their search. A ride on a lumbering truck brings new leads, then a riverboat moves their search further into remote regions.

Just as hope seems lost, a surprising discovery reveals long-held secrets. Answers arrive, though not as either youth anticipated. Through it all, they learn as much about themselves as each other and the bonds of family in its many forms. Wet whether or not Satu finds the closure he seeks, their journey transforms two wandering souls in its wake.

While challenges arise, Satu and Bo draw strength from their partnership and the resilience of the Lao people all around them. By the story’s end, these unlikely travel companions have both found what they needed most along impossible roads through vivid countryside.

Capturing Laos on 16mm Film

Through his lens, director Trigg brings Laos to life on screen. By choosing to shoot on grainy 16mm, audiences feel fully immersed in this stunning countryside. From towering jungle peaks to mist-shrouded temples, the vivid scenery serves as a character itself.

Natural light plays a starring role. Drops glisten like emeralds in the morning sun. Crimson robes brighten monastery halls. Deep within bamboo groves, butterflies flit like flakes of azure sky. Whether documenting the daily routines of villagers or Satu’s soul-searching travels, Trigg’s camera soaks in Laotian locales.

Trigg peers into intimate moments too, with natural warmth. A smile shared cuts tension after facing trouble on the open road. In flickers of joy or sorrow, the child actors’ emotions shine through without artificial amplification. Their bond grows plainly visible through steadfast shots, inviting viewers into their journey.

Some scenes stir on visual metaphor alone. Steam rising from rice paddies likens to worries lifting from troubled minds. Wading water buffalo evoke the steadfast strength of community ties carrying people through hard times. Changing colors signal shifting emotions, like when Satu’s once-bright clothing dims as youth slips away.

Throughout misty forest walks and down muddy lanes, the cinematography brings an unspoken sense of history. Through crisp portraits of elders and children alike, one glimpses a proud people’s resilience over generations. Their steeped traditions remain vibrant despite challenges, much like the landscape itself.

By documentary-like framing and gritty reels, Trigg grants the audience a glimpse of places outside guidebooks. In tender humanity and natural environs, Satu – Year of the Rabbit shows why some destinations remain most magnetic when experienced through local eyes and hearts.

Bonding on the Road to Answers

From the moment they meet, an bond forms between Bo and Satu that deepens along their journey. Curiosity and care for one another shine through as the resilient teens face challenges on the long road north.

Though recently acquainted, Bo lends her strength to aid Satu in finding his past. Seeking justice from hardship herself, she guards their partnership with vigor. Yet beneath her drive burns thoughtful care for her new friend’s wellbeing.

For Satu, Bo’s companionship reawakens the playful spirit hidden behind years of wondering alone. As scenery changes daily, so do fears fade of what the future may bring. Through tests of adversity like moped troubles or wrong turns, the boy grows steadier with each lesson learned hand in hand with Bo.

Subtle shifts in clothing hint at the inner metamorphosis of Satu shedding the last of his youth. The once bold colors dim to somber tones, mirroring a new maturity nurtured by facing life’s truths with friends beside him. Even so, curiosity keeps his eyes open to each new view as the journey’s end nears.

In Bo too, resilient steel anchors growing softness. Though escape from a difficult home sparked her travels, understanding found alongside Satu soothes old wounds. Through his eyes, she sees life’s simpler pleasures, and in his smile, she finds solace that nourishes her own.

By tale’s end, these unlikely travel partners have gained far more than what brought them together. Their relationship blooms steadily along Laos’ beautiful paths, reflecting how friendship’s gifts can smooth even the most arduous of roads when walked with courage and care for one another.

Belonging on the Road to Self

Woven into Satu and Bo’s travels stand resonant themes that echo long after the final scene. Their adventure brings hope of someday feeling settled—yet along the way, each gains far more than what drew them further down unfamiliar paths.

For Satu, the search begins with seeking roots torn away in infancy. Through Bo’s companionship, his sense of lacking fades each day. Their bond nurtures what family provides, and friendship found where least expected. Answers to his past change nothing; this present gifts all he needs.

Bo escapes a childhood shattered by fate. The pursuit of career dreams props her steps outward, yet the road opens her eyes to life’s simplicities too. Through Satu’s enthusiasm, she reconnects with life’s small wonders and finds solace for sorrows long carried alone.

Familiar places change with time’s flow, as do people. Maturity earns its stripes not by years alone but in facing hard truths with open and understanding hearts. So each youth discovers, learning more about a vast world—and themselves within it—than any teacher ever could offer.

Where will their separate ways eventually lead? Some riddles have no reply. Yet this much shines clear: by traveling together toward answers, they gained so much more. Two souls once adrift feel anchored, finding safe harbor and steady stars to steer by for all the roads ahead.

Finding Home on Distant Roads

Throughout their journey, Satu and Bo pursue what draws them away from all familiar. Yet through their partnership, both youths find rather what they seek lies within. Their bond nurtures the spirit, demonstrating life’s hidden lessons surface when traveled with an open and understanding companion.

Viewers leave enriched, having traveled beside the intrepid pair through Laos’ vivid and little seen vistas. Director Trigg brings this distant landscape alive, granting a glimpse into lives persevering through challenge and change. His feel for place and people brings a documentary touch, grounding the narrative.

While certain scenes feel overextended, Trigg debuts as a filmmaker of keen sensitivity. He handles profound themes—from loss and belonging to friendship’s power—deftly through young performers’ natural performances. With refinement, his potential seems bright to expose audiences worldwide to untouched corners of our diverse world.

In Satu and Bo, we all find pieces of our own journeys, whether searching for roots or a fresh start, facing life’s twists, or discovering its simplest joys in unlikely places. Their story and the resilient nation harboring it stay long in the mind’s eye, leaving hope that Trigg’s travels through Southeast Asia have only just begun.

The Review