The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

One of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Documentary Feature, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) is a moving triumph of nonfiction filmmaking. Acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) shares co-director status with the film's subject, Thavisouk Phrasavath, son of a Laotian military officer who provided the CIA with intelligence during the U.S. bombing of Laos in 1973. When the Communist Pathet Lao regime took power, Phrasavath's father was imprisoned, while Phrasavath, his mother, and seven of his nine younger siblings escaped into Thailand, where they were held in a refugee camp, before eventually resettling in the U.S. in a crime-heavy Brooklyn neighborhood. Mixing historic footage from Laos circa the 1970s with family photographs illustrating Phrasavath and his family's uneasy assimilation into American culture, The Betrayal presents a troubling cinematic diary of a family whose faith in U.S. promises was never fulfilled, while also detailing two horrific chapters in U.S. history: the bombing of Laos (which absorbed more sky-dropped bombs than were used during the two World Wars combined) and the humanitarian catastrophe of the post-Vietnam War refugee crisis. A haunting, powerful documentary, this is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)