The Rice
People (Neak Srey),
Set in the yearly cycle of rice farming, this feature
film depicts the struggles of rice farmers throughout Southeast Asia.
The story, based upon the novel “Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan” by
eminent Malay author Shahnon Ahmad, is transposed to a rural Cambodian
setting. The tenuous
existence of one Cambodian
family begins to unravel after a series of accidents. Facing tremendous adversity,
the eldest daughter saves the family by bringing in the rice crop.
(JBA Productions, 1994)
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Land of Wandering Souls
In 1999, Alcatel
laid Southeast Asia's first optical fiber cable, which crosses Cambodia
from Thailand. This installation project provided several months of
employment for many Cambodians,
especially those from rural areas facing uncertain economic conditions.
This documentary illustrates the hardships, dignity, and wit of
these workers while providing insight into the social and economic
contradictions facing contemporary Cambodia. (INA, 1999)
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Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy
This docudrama, based upon documents
and forced confessions recovered during the 1980s,
is currently showing at the Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh.
With great pathos, it follows the lives of two young people—the
lovely young woman Hout Bophana, and Ly Sitha, an ex- monk turned
Khmer-rouge soldier—who fall in love, marry, and are
killed during the Pol Pot regime.
(INA , 1996)
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Site II
Although the refugee camp known as
Site II no longer exists, it held
as many as 180,000 people in a four-mile area on the border of Thailand
and Cambodia during the 1980s. This
historic documentary follows the life of one Cambodia family
in Site II. Narrated
by the mother, it provides a
glimpse into life as a “displaced person.”
(JBA, 1989)
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Further
information:
Profile
http://www.claremont-courier.com/042002/panh.html
Interview
http://www.oneworld.cz/oneworld/2001/english/text5.php
Essay
http://www.unesco.org/courier/1999_12/uk/dossier/txt07.htm
Film Information:
Rice
People
http://www.shef.ac.uk/city/showroom/1996/january/rice_people.html
http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/culture/france/cinema/fdsud/fds/film45.html
Bophana
http://go.walla.co.il/humanrights/Bophana_10.html
Land
of the Wandering Souls
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/about/film4.html
One
Evening After the War
http://www.legacy-project.org/film/display.html?ID=364
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