Cambodia

Cinema of Cambodia

The history of Cambodian cinema begins in the 1950s. Previously, only foreigners had made movies in Cambodia, mostly short documentaries.

Som Sam Al is considered to be the first local commercial filmmaker, having screened his 16mm silent movie “Blossoming Flower, Withering Flower” in cinemas in 1958.

At this time, the leading filmmaker of Cambodia was King Norodom Sihanouk, who, at 19, bought himself a 16mm camera to shoot short films.

King Sihanouk wrote, directed, produced, and starred in at least nine feature films, and in his decades-long career, he made at least 50 shorts, features and documentaries.

His first feature film was “Apsara” in 1966. Other films include, “Shadows Over Angkor” (1967), “Joy of Life” (1969), “Twilight” (1969), and “Rose of Bokor” (1969).

King Sihanouk was one of the most prolific filmmakers in all of Southeast Asia. He saw filmmaking as a key to nation building, and he wanted to celebrate Khmer culture and arts through his storytelling.

Sihanouk was a musician, too, and composed the music scores of his films. One of his wives, “the Queen Mother,” was a dancer and headed up the Royal Ballet. They encouraged the production of arts as part of Khmer heritage to be proud of. Under Sihanouk, each ministry was required to have its own orchestra.

It is said the King disliked the foreign films that came to shoot in Cambodia, such as “Lord Jim” starring Peter O’Tool, which had more of an outsider’s gaze on his country.

French filmmaker Marcel Camus also visited Cambodia to film “Bird of Paradise” (1962). which at least used a Khmer cast and crew. This shoot ended up inspiring some locals to become filmmakers, such as Yvon Hem, and his sister Nerie Hem, who worked on and acted in the film respectively.

King Sihanouk sent a few Cambodians to France to study film. Most of these trained filmmakers then returned home to Cambodia and worked on many of the King’s films. He continued to make films through 2006 and passed away in 2012.

The most prolific time in Cambodian cinema history was the Golden Era, which lasted from around 1960 to 1975, when over 300 films were made. These movies were often influenced by Cambodian mythology and folklore: stories with flying horses, witches and giants. The most popular films of the era include the “Snake King’s Wife,” “12 Sisters,” “Khmer After Angkor,” “The Snake Hair Girl,” and “The Crocodile Man.”

Tragically, only 33 of these Golden Era films remain.

The Golden Era came to a stark and abrupt end once the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975. These films were banned and destroyed, and many of the filmmakers, actors and artists were killed, including Vichara Dany, Som Van Soudany, and Kong Sam Oeun.

Popular singers, Sinn Sisamouth and Seroy Sothea were also killed by the Khmer Rouge. They were considered “the soul of the Cambodian people,” and their music was featured in many Golden Era films.

From 1967-1975, Cambodia had its own Civil War, changing the landscape of Phnom Penh, yet movies were still being made and screened.

With support from North Vietnam and eventually China, The Khmer Rouge, a Communist-influenced guerrilla group, fought Lon Nol’s government.

Although King Sihanouk previously was opposed to the Khmer Rouge, while in exile, he went on National Radio and compelled the people of Cambodia to join the Khmer Rouge revolutionaries to fight against Lon Nol. As a result, many villagers joined in because they wanted their King back. This action helped prop up the Khmer Rouge, though quite possibly, also saved Sihanouk’s life.

On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh and “liberated” the city and defeated Lon Nol once and for all. This same day, or right after, the U.S. had completely left Cambodia, evacuating all of their remaining staff.

The Khmer Rouge told the people of Phnom Penh that everybody must evacuate the city, taking only what they can carry, because “the Americans are going to bomb the city.”

This was not true.

They also promised, “you can return in three days, when it’s safe again.”

Also not true.

In reality, this was part of a plan to start “Year Zero” and create a “Utopia” where there are no cities, no educated elites, no artists, musicians, filmmakers, no banking or currency; no foreign languages. Just peasants and farmers and communal living.

People were marched for days and moved to the countryside and forced into work camps to farm rice paddies and dig ditches, dams, canals. Cultivated rice was shipped to China in exchange for weapons. Everyone was expected to serve and honor “Angkor” (the “organization”) over kin.

People who moved from the cities, those considered to be the elite, and the artists were all called “New People” and treated worse. Minorities, too, such as the Chams (Muslim Khmers) were treated very poorly. Anyone associated with Lon Nol’s government was killed. People with glasses were killed. (The exception being Brother #2.) People who openly spoke French were killed. Professors, doctors, and educated people were killed. Recognizable pop singers, actors and directors, killed. As the years went on, more and more Khmer Rouge soldiers who were suspected traitors or flawed, were also killed. One wonders, who is left to serve this new Cambodia?

It is estimated that a quarter, or even a third of the population was killed or died during the Khmer Rouge times. At least 2 million people!

Everyone was required to wear black “pajamas” and were served very limited meals. Nutrition was so bad, many died of starvation, others malaria. Families were separated, and sometimes there were mass forced marriages within the Khmer Rouge system. This is depicted in the documentary by Lida Chan and Guillaume Suon, “Red Wedding: Women Under The Khmer Rouge” (2o12).

So come 1975, cinema as we knew it was gone. The physical cinema: theaters. of which there were approx. 35 in Phnom Penh previously, were either abandoned, destroyed, bombed out, hiding refugees, or turned into torture centers. Movies were destroyed; considered too Western.

The only filmmaking left was for the Khmer Rouge to document the activities of Angkor: soldiers were given cameras and trained by Chinese filmmakers on how to use them.

Footage shot by the Khmer Rouge was occasionally screened at rural workgroup meetings in order to demonstrate being a good member under the Angkor, or “Organization;” to prop up the new Democratic Kampuchea. These films show workers in fields and factories, at party meetings, and occasionally official state visits.

Today, the country’s archives at the Bophana Center has 78 of these Khmer Rouge films, which were restored in France. Some of these clips were shown as evidence in the Khmer Rouge Tribunal hearings.

Today, the leaders of the archives see these films as educational tools for future generations to learn and understand even the darkest of the country’s history.

Some filmmakers and actors were lucky and fled to other countries before it was too late. Most were not so lucky and were killed by the Khmer Rouge. For the “lucky” few filmmakers who lived, you can hear their stories in Davy Chou’s documentary film, “Golden Slumbers” (2011) about Cambodia’s cinema history.

In 1979, the Vietnamese “liberated” Cambodia and kicked out the Khmer Rouge, yet the Vietnamese still heavily controlled the Khmer population. Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge kept waging guerilla warfare, mostly from the Western borderlands of Thailand, and with support from the U.S. and other Western powers, to fight the Vietnamese and get Cambodia back. Not until Pol Pot died in 1998 did things truly “calm down.”

Ten years or so later, in the early 1990s, the Paris Peace Accords required Vietnam to transition out of power, and elections were held for a “free, democratic Cambodia.”

Following the fall of the Khmer Rouge, as the country recovered, not many films were being made. Notable exceptions include, “My Mother is Arb,” a Khmer horror folk-story, released in 1980: it is considered the first film made after the fall of the Khmer Rouge.

In the 1990s, cinema started to re-emerge; though TV, and popular Thai or other foreign movies, made cinema less popular than before. At this time, filmmaker Rithy Panh emerged and became Cambodia’s most internationally recognized filmmaker.

At the end of the Khmer Rouge era, in 1979, when Rithy Panh was just 15-years-old, he escaped to Thailand to a refugee camp as the only survivor in his family. He then moved to Paris, attended a vocational school to study carpentry, and fell in love with filmmaking. In Paris, he graduated from the Institute For the Advanced Cinematographic Studies. Rithy returned to Cambodia to make films, with France as his home base. He is most known for “Rice People” (1994), which competed at Cannes and was the first Cambodian film submitted to the Oscars; followed by “One Evening After The War” (1998).