Believing her sole living son to be blessed, Mali refuses to kill him and so, she and Taitok keep it a secret from her husband, Toma (Sumrit Warin).

After burying Mali, Ahlo and his family ride a bus to their new village, which Taitok doesn't much like due to the running water and electricity that replaces their "traditions".

Here, Ahlo meets a girl named Kia (Loungnam Kaosainam), who has lost her entire family (due to malaria) and now lives with her uncle, Purple (Suthep Po-ngam), who is a fan of James Brown.

While journeying for yet another home, Ahlo and company cross paths with a parade of travelers, where he hears an announcer mention a rocket competition that gives out cash prizes.

Believing this could break his curse, Ahlo announces his intentions to build a rocket and enter the contest to earn the money for them to buy a new home, but Toma and Taitko won't allow him, due to his presumed bad luck.

The website's critical consensus states: "A feel-good success crafted with care, Kim Mordaunt's story of two young kids in Laos is a heartfelt audience pleaser while remaining sensitive toward its subjects".

[6] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generaly favorable reviews".

[7] Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times gave a positive review, commenting "Mordaunt doesn't always succeed at balancing the sentimental, the political and the ethnographic, but at its strongest the story is a seamless melding of history's dark undertow and a child's indefatigable optimism.

[9] Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru called the film "uplifting, engrossing and thrilling while remaining accessible to both art-house and mainstream audiences.

"[10] Noah Berlatsky of The Dissolve called the film a "well-constructed delivery system for sparkly cheer, but it lacks a more substantial payload.