AQUILA WARRIOR
A STORY OF SIN AND REDEMPTION
2014
MEET
ARTHUR
Abandoned by his Russian mother and Vietnamese father, Arthur “Dung” Luu grew up on the streets of Latvia. Arthur dropped out of school at age 14 in 2005 and learned to cook to support himself, while always pining for his dad.
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When a journalist locates Arthur's paternal Vietnamese grandparents by sheer providence in 2014, Arthur decides to take the opportunity to find family and leave behind a troubled childhood
2017
A
POISOINED
DREAM
"I WANT TO WIN VIETNAM'S NATIONAL MEN'S WEIGHT-LIFTING COMPETITION, I'LL START WITH THAT GOAL"
The story begins in 2017 in Hanoi when Arthur is an amateur weightlifter employed as a chef at a Soviet themed restaurant in Hanoi. He both uses and sells steroids, intent on winning a national weightlifting competition.
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Having recently moved to a foreign country, he is isolated once again, unable to meaningfully communicate with his blood relatives. Arthur turned to bodybuilding to find a purpose, but with this pursuit a dark history of drugs comes back to haunt him while injecting 'juice' and finding himself partying with new people. After a tumultuous break-up with a 40-year-old Russian divorcee, Arthur flees to the farthest island in Vietnam to escape his troubles, only to return to Hanoi a week before Tet of 2018, gaunt and destitute.
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Now peddling drugs that he's also addicted to, Arthur is too ashamed to visit his grandparent's home and further descends into the depths of darkness by means of stealing money, drugs, and splitting to Saigon where his addiction takes greater hold and he disappears, unable to be contacted.
"AFTER 2 MONTHS OF STEROIDS,
YOU'LL SEE HOW MUCH I GROW"
2018
Aquila Center, Quoc Oai, Ha Noi
A SECOND LIFE
Nine months later, Arthur has found Jesus and is living at a Christian rehab center in the bucolic, mountainous countryside an hour's drive from Hanoi. The Aquila Rescue Center (named after a missionary of the Apostle Paul's era) takes a forceful approach. They prohibit Arthur from leaving and when he threatens to call the police, they lock him in a room.
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Yet, 6 months into the program, which focuses on bible reading, solitary and group worship, and forbids use of outside communication, Arthur is grateful. Moreover, he now speaks in biblical tongues, participates in prayer healings, and performs daily chores. Immersed in this new life, Arthur submits totally to Aquila, and to its leader, Pastor Trung, himself a recovered addict. Once Arthur graduates from Aquila, he stays to become a missionary - to travel and live by the grace of others while spreading the gospel. He is continuing to devote himself to Aquila, traveling to Pentecostal congregations around Asia and sharing his testimony of sin and revitalization through Christ.
Thematically, Arthur's story compels us to consider the search for acceptance and belonging the we all crave. As re-enactment blends with documentary element, the sense of uncertainty might extend to the entire film itself: is this 'non-fiction'? On a story level, the audience is left to wonder if what Arthur believes is correct. On a meta level, we're also left to wonder the veracity of what is told in the film.
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Topically, drug rehabilitation in developing countries, and religious movements are both put under a light. While 10% of Vietnam is Christian, still only under 2% of those are Protestant. Recent easing of restricions on religious freedoms in Vietnam have allowed more Christian sects to begin converting. However, in 2018, Vietnam banned a Christian 'cult' (World Mission Society Church of God) for proselytizing in public.
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As the Aquila Center claims nearly a 90% conversion rate, the film seeks to also identify and reveal how their addiction recovery program operates through pentecostalism, which appears to in part through persistence -- or coercion. The audience is left to decide whether or not the Aquila Center is entirely an agent of good, and Arthur a heroic warrior of Christ.