Boat People

It comes down to karma: as a little girl in Vietnam, Thao’s mother would rescue ants from bowls of sugar water. The tiny creatures would later return the favour, leading her desperate family through darkness—and pointing the way to safety.

In Boat People, illustrator and author Thao Lam undertakes a creative rescue mission of her own, joining forces with animator Kjell Boersma to recount her family’s dramatic trajectory across the turbulent waters of 20th-century history.

With dazzling originality and narrative flair, the filmmakers counterbalance a lesson in ant behaviour with a very human story. Ants may not experience loss, Thao remarks in her minimalistic narration, but the visuals tell a story of humans carrying the burden for a lifetime.

Her family were among over 1.6 million refugees who fled the chaotic aftermath of the Vietnam War, crossing the South China Sea in open boats. Thousands would lose their lives along the way, while many others made the heartbreaking decision to stay behind, never to see their loved ones again.

With elegant visual economy and a striking metaphor, the filmmakers craft an unusual account of rupture and resilience. The unique aesthetic of the film was created using a hybrid of traditional 2D animation, stop-motion multiplane animation and 3D digital rendering—in an attempt to stay true to the look of Thao’s art style. Patterned papers and handmade paper textures created with black ink hand-printed on paper are combined to produce the multi-layered collages.

A vast Malaysian refugee camp, depicted in stylized animation, evokes one of nature’s industrious subterranean communities, while a small column of ants, marching tirelessly towards its unknown destiny, becomes a poignant expression of perseverance and survival.

A sharply etched personal story, exquisite in its specificity, Boat People speaks across time and culture to anyone who’s ever fought to protect their family or community.