We couldn’t have done this film in the Lao language with protagonists from the country unless we’d made the documentary beforehand. The producer Silvia [Wilczynski] and myself lived in Hanoi, Vietnam about ten years ago and we worked there as teachers, on a propaganda newspapers, and I even landed a job as gameshow host on a rigged programme. All sorts of funny things happening and we travelled a lot to Laos and fell in love with the place. It was like going back in time. The people were very gentle and kind. Then we found out it the most bombed-out place in the world, per capital. We asked ourselves how are these people so forgiving after what happened to them. We were so inspired by that and it led to the making of the documentary. It was about an Australian bomb disposal expert so we had to give it an Australian/Anglo perspective.