Today is Better than Two Tomorrows

Director: Anna Rodgers
2006/ Ireland/ 80 mins

Sometimes writing one of these reviews is something to look forward to. Very rarely. But it happens. So I am going to skip the usual pleasantries for once and get straight to the point. This film was not only the best film I saw at the JDIFF, it was one of the best film/documentaries I have ever seen.

Back in 2002, Anna Rodgers was backpacking across South-East Asia on her own when she befriended a young monk who took her to his village where he grew up and introduced his family. Here in the rural jungles of Laos, she fell in love with the people and the surroundings and decided to make a film. That film follows two young boys, and best friends, aged eleven, Bo and Leh, as they prepare to leave home together; one to join a monastery and the other to arrive at his new foster parents.

Today is Better than Two Tomorrows is an extraordinary film. It drips with beautiful camera shots of everything from rain dashed footsteps to glossy green vegetation. There is a shot of rain on a picket fence. A large, bent nail sticks up out of one piece of the fence. Torrential rain is tumbling down and this two second shot immediately sticks in mind. The whole film is jammed full of nice little shots like that which create giant emotional connections in the mind while watching. Not a minute of its 80 is wasted. The simplicity of the film is the main ingredient here. A hand-held camera has never looked so brilliantly expensive and pivotal to a feature. There is no narration and the director never comes into focus. We are the eyes of the film, wandering, gasping at each step as the tale unfolds around us.

This simplicity enables the viewer to fully indulge in Laos without being there. One can feel the heat, smell the food and I suspect many, like myself, just wished to reach out touch the screen and be whisked away to all that rolling exoticism. It is storytelling at its most sincere and creative. The colours of the scenery mixed with the impressive musical score (fingers crossed the DVD and OST are made available) frame the film’s movement perfectly.

We are shown close-ups of the boys leaving home, their faces looking out along the Mekong river towards their futures. When they arrive in Luang Prabang, separated, each starts to settle into their new roles. There is a confidence and maturity in their eyes throughout. Not an inch of fear or upset is shown and yet they are two of the most engaging and quite typically childish children ever cast to screen. One cannot help but wonder what has happened to both once the credits have finished. The sheer lack of general knowledge of Laos and how distant it seems from everything here in modernised, westernised Dublin only made the film that much more engrossing. Fascinating to say the least.

It is rare that a documentary encapsulates beauty and wonder, involving characters and all from an interesting standing point. Whether or not this will ever be seen again on our shores or not, time will tell. Four years in the making is well presented here on the screen. Having been to SE Asia myself, it is possible that the film aroused a missing love affair with the past but it has to be said- only the hardest heart would not melt at watching this. It had me gulping down my emotions and wishing I was living in a hut in a jungle somewhere from the first minute.

Anna Rodgers was in the audience afterward for a Q&A so keep an eye out on youtube. This young Irish director is most definitely going places. It is a stand out moment for both Laos and Ireland and one wishes that more like Rodgers would just set out there and capture the world such as she did, setting the world alight for even the briefest of time. Quite possibly one of the finest most fully realised debuts in recent times. Astonishing.

-Shane O'Reilly