Khmer

Director Rithy Panh turns his attention from Cambodia’s deadly past (last year’s S21: Khmer Rouge Killing Machine) to its uncertain present in this portrait of the legendary temples of Angkor and of the people paradoxically creating a future out of its ruins. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Angkor’s spectacular complexes provide a haunted stage for the laborers, peddlers, and holy men who exist within them. Workers piece together shards of statues and give voice to the stories carved upon the stones (if they can agree on what each image means, that is). Monks meditate in bullet-marked temples and narrate the histories of their gods. A farmer tours the murals with his fighting cock, revisiting the glories of old kings. For this “lost” city’s inhabitants, Angkor’s tales are never finished, its sculptures never silent. Intermingling their stories as subtly as a whisper, Panh creates a document of modern Cambodia, his camera carving out new legends with each story told.Read More »

Set in the newly-pacified Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this film is about the return to civilian life of Cambodian soldiers. Initially following three such returnees, the plot narrows to focus on Savannah (Narith Roeun), one ex-soldier trying to make sense of his new situation. He finds a home with his uncle, and they are the only remaining survivors of his once-large family. Despite its attraction and ubiquity, he decides not to turn to a life of petty crime, and instead tries to make his way as a kickboxer. Along the way he meets Srey Poeuv (Chea Lyda Chan), a 19 year-old bargirl who dreams of being rich and is ashamed of her status, in a dancehall. Initially, she resists his advances, but is swayed by the strength of his devotion and perseverance. His is the story of a damaged country trying vigorously to renew itself.Read More »

Quote:
“I survived because they liked my paintings,” says Vann Nath in this unsettling documentary, an affecting and effective film. This placid artist was imprisoned along with 17,000 other Cambodians in a Phnom Penh high school that had been converted into a Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center. The school was used for this purpose for two years during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror (1975 to 1979), when as many as a million people died. In the film, he returns there to confront the men who worked as guards, really boys doing the Devil’s work: at the time, they ranged from 13 to their early 20’s. At one point the director shows the former guards recreating their grisly everyday tasks as a kind of pantomime. Watching them re-enact their chores in the large, stained and now empty rooms, which look like those in almost any American high school – while piles of the dead prisoners’ abandoned clothes sit heaped nearby – is simply one of the most disorienting moments you’re likely to encounter in a movie. – Elvis MitchellRead More »

Bora, an 18-year-old, leaves his village to work on the construction sites of Diamond Island, a project for an ultra-modern paradise for the rich and a symbol of tomorrow’s Cambodia. He befriends his fellow workers and finds his elder brother, the charismatic Solei, who went missing five years earlier. Solei introduces him into an exciting world, that of an urban and wealthy youth, its girls, nights and illusions.Read More »

In Rithy Panh’s latest exploration of the lasting effects of the Cambodian genocide, a 13-year-old boy who loses most of his family begins a search for their graves.Cambodian-born, France-based filmmaker Rithy Panh has dedicated much of his career to investigating the campaign of genocide undertaken by the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Civil War and memorializing its victims.

Official submission of Cambodia for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category of the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.Read More »