Doc/Fest - Sheffield

'Resolutely gripping.'
Variety

Filmed over 23 years, The Betrayal offers a nightmare version of the American dream, which begins in the killing fields of Laos, and ends on the unforgiving streets of New York. During the Vietnam War, Laos became a base for an illegal, secret US airwar in Southeast Asia. The CIA financed and armed the Laos government, and created its own secret guerrilla army, co-director Thavisouk Phrasavat’s father amongst them. But then the US, after dropping three million tons of bombs, abruptly retreated from Laos. Pro communist forces took power in 1975, and persecuted the former American backed regime – taking Phrasavat’s father away, never to be seen again. Left alone with ten children, his mother escapes with her family to the USA, only to experience a series of betrayals in the country her husband had given his life for. In her directorial debut, veteran cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Phrasavat seamlessly weave together personal and historical archival footage with a return to Laos to tell this haunting story of the resilience of the human spirit.