| Director: | Polen Ly |
|---|---|
| Production: | Anti-Archive (Daniel Mattes) |
| Running Time: | 99’ |
| Language: | Khmer |
| Country: | Cambodia |
| Main Cast: | Savorn Serak, Piseth Chhun |
| Screenplay: | Polen Ly |
| Cinematographer: | Son Doan |
| Editor: | Kavich Neang |
| Production Designer: | Banddidh Prum |
| Costume Designer: | Sreynoch Khun |
| Music: | Jean-Charles Bastion, Pierre Édouard Dumora |
| Sound: | Vincent Villa |
| Visual Effects: | Yi Yeang Reaksmey |
Cinema
Chiet Chea Manusa (Becoming Human)
Biennale College Cinema
Synopsis
Thida, the spirit guardian of an old cinema facing demolition, must confront her existence as a ghost and the choice of rebirth. When she meets Hai, a living human with whom she forms a deep bond, their connection forces her to face not only her spiritual destiny but also the realities of a country undergoing profound social change.
Director’s Statement
Writing Chiet Chea Manusa was like a meditative journey that allowed me to reflect on what it means to be a human in a landscape that has gone through trauma and transformation. As the child of a family which lived through the Cambodian genocide and as a filmmaker in the present, I have witnessed people’s loss of home, livelihood, and natural landscapes from unjust forms of development and change. I feel like I have been stuck in a space and time, where past and present traumas have chained up with one another.
In Chiet Chea Manusa, the connection of the two lead characters is a representation of the confluence between the old and new generations. They both share a similar fragility. Each character is faced with a choice to move forward to the next stage of life. Nature is fragile, but at the same time it carries with it a universal quality of becoming resilient. Hope and compassion provide the mental strength to transform oneself from a state of fragility to one of resilience. In this traumatic landscape where echoes of the past repeat again and again, finding the capacity to thrive in community with one another, with compassion, is probably what it means to be human.
PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION
PRODUCTION:
Anti-Archive - Daniel Mattes
47E0, Street 350
121303 Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel: +855 77335861
E-mail: daniel.mattes@antiarchive.com
Web: http://www.antiarchive.com
Social Media: antiarchive - Facebook, anti_archive - Instagram, antiarchive - YouTube
WORLD SALES:
Lights On - Flavio Armone
Via Filippo Juvarra 16
10122 Torino, Italia
Tel: +39 3661812097
E-mail: lightson@lightsonfilm.org
Web: https://www.lightsonfilm.com/
Social Media: lightsonfilm - Facebook, lightsonfilm - Instagram
PRESS OFFICE:
La Biennale di Venezia
Ca' Giustinian, San Marco, 1364/a
30124 Venezia, Italia
Tel: +39 041 2726 644
E-mail: presscinema@labiennale.org; college-cinema@labiennale.org;
Lights On - Flavio Armone
lightson@lightsonfilm.org
