An amazing film in more ways than one

MovieSeer
http://www.movieseer.com

Reviewed by: Lekha J. Shankar

As the world watches the historic trials of the atrocious Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, this is a good time to watch a ‘life-affirming’ film on the country, made by a New Zealand director, who spent two decades of his life, in creating it.

Stanley Harper’s 18-year-old cinematic odyssey ‘Cambodia Dreams’ is an amazing film in more ways than one. Apart from being made against all odds in a politically volatile country, it achieved the miraculous feat of ‘connecting’ a mother and daughter, living on either side of the border, who did not even know, they existed!

The movie had an unprecedented screening on all seven TV channels of Cambodia, when had its first public showing, last year. At the end of it, the toughie Prime Minister of the country Hun Sen gave the New Zealand director an honorary citizenship of the country!

The film received rave-reviews,when it was screened at the well-known Frontline Journlists Club,in London, last year. It will have a special screening at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, this on 30 April.

Harper said that he was so financially and emotionally drained after making the film, that he did not have the means or energy to send the film to international film festivals, although that would have been the ultimate reward for his two-decade cinematic odyssey.

It all started way back in 1986, when the BBC commissioned Harper to make a film on the refugees living on the Thai border, as part of a BBC Global Report Special, to commemorate the International Year of Peace.

The New Zealander, then based in Paris, came with his camera-team to the famous ‘Site 2’ refugee camp, 50kms from the Aranyaprathet / Poipet border crossing, never imagining it would change his life.

It was here that he met Yan Chheing, the ‘granny’ whose story became the subject of his two-decade film-odyssey.

The BBC film was quickly finished.

After that, Harper got started on his own film, totally fascinated by the ‘granny’s moving tales about the lush country she was forced to leave , and the dreary refugee camp she had to live in.

The result was a one-hour documentary called ‘ Situation Zero’, which was premiered at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington in 1988, by the US Committee for Refugees, to a rave response.

The film was simultaneously screened on national TV, in three countries- Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, creating such an impact that it was later televised in 14 countries around the world.

But Harper still felt his movie was incomplete.

Somewhere in the course of filming ‘ Situation Zero’, the ‘granny’ had mentioned the name of her daughter, ‘Tha’, who lived in ‘Preak Kroach’ village in Cambodia .

He knew that this was the ‘other half' of the Cambodian story that he needed to tell.

It was not easy getting into Cambodia.

But with the help of an NGO organization and a Khmer interpreter, Harper sought hard, and found both the village, and the daughter.

It was when he was inside Cambodia, that the New Zealander realized how this mother-daughter relationship reflected the “deep and divisive” feelings between those who lived inside the country, and those who lived outside.

One of the most moving scenes in the film, is when the daughter gets a letter from her mother (delivered by Harper) - the first ‘connection’ between both of them.

After 12 years in the refugee camp, the ‘granny’ finally returns to her village and her daughter, with joy and freedom.

The film suffered a set-back in 1992, when there was a military coup in Thailand, followed by an economic crash, which led to a crash in the funding of the documentary.

But Harper went back to Cambodia, nearly a decade later in 2001, and completed his story on the ‘Granny’, this time filming her grand-children, one dying of AIDS, and one having a baby.

That to him, summed up the story of the family and the country.

‘Cambodia Dreams’ that was started in 1986, was finally completed in April 2008 !

It is truly the example of a docu-film that is more than just a docu-film.

It’s of epic stature, because it connected a family, reconciled a community, re-built hope in a ravaged country- even if it took two decades to achieve all this.