There’s a particular kind of filmmaking that reminds you why cinema exists, not to dazzle or franchise, but simply to look. Satu — Year of the Rabbit, the debut feature from Welsh director Joshua Trigg, is that kind of film.
The story begins with a mother leaving her infant on the steps of a Buddhist temple, believing the monks will give the boy a better life than she ever could. Years later, that boy — Satu — sets off north through Laos to find her, falling in with Bo, a 17-year-old fleeing her own broken home with dreams of becoming a photojournalist. It’s a road movie at heart, and a quietly beautiful one.
Both lead roles are filled by non-professional actors, a risk that pays off handsomely. Itthiphone Sonepho is a genuine find. Watchful, dignified, and utterly convincing. Vanthiva Saysana matches him with quiet steel. The bond between them becomes the film’s emotional engine, and it never once feels manufactured.
Shot on 16mm by cinematographer James Chegwyn, Laos itself becomes a character, golden temples, mist-draped mountains, and river villages rendered with a grain and warmth that digital simply cannot replicate. Every frame feels earned.
The script stumbles occasionally, inserting moments of forced drama that feel more like runtime padding than genuine story necessity. And the plot’s broader strokes are predictable enough. But Trigg has the good sense to trust his landscapes and his performers over narrative mechanics.
The result is a film of unshowy sincerity, a sensitive meditation on abandonment, belonging, and the families we find along the way. Small in scale, quietly magnificent.
