Cinema of Cambodia
Encyclopedia
Cinema in Cambodia began in the 1950s, and many films were being screened in theaters throughout the country by the 1960s, which are regarded as the "golden age". After a decline during the Khmer Rouge
regime, competition from video and television has meant that the Cambodia
n film industry is relatively small today.
had a desire for films and dreamed of stardom before he was chosen to be King by the French, this gave the King second thoughts about his dream to become an actor or director, but he kept this thought in mind.The first Cambodian-made films were made in the 1950s by filmmakers who had studied overseas. They included Roeum Sophon, Ieu Pannakar
and Sun Bun Ly. The United States Information Service held training workshops during this era and provided equipment as well. One film from this time was Dan Prean Lbas Prich, or Footprints of the Hunter, made by off-duty Cambodian military personnel using American equipment and containing footage of Cambodian hill tribes.
Sun Bun Ly's first film was Kar Pear Prumjarei Srei Durakut (Protect Virginity). He also established the first private production company, Ponleu Neak Poan Kampuchea. His success inspired others, such as Ly Bun Yim, to try their hand.
Movie tickets were relatively affordable and Cambodian-made movies were widely popular in Cambodia among all classes. Movie-lovers favored traditional-legendary Cambodian movies. At the time about two-thirds of the films released were "boran," legendary films. This kept the audience entertained and the culture alive.
Among the classic films from this period are Lea Haey Duong Dara (Goodbye Duong Dara) and Pos Keng Kang
(The Snake King's Wife) by Tea Lim Kun.
During the Golden Age, not all the films were just released in locally but internationally as well. During the 1970s, Cambodia films were well received internationally. . Pos Keng Kang
(The Snake King's Wife), a Khmer Horror period, was a big hit in Thailand
while Crocodile Man
from 1974, was screened in Hong Kong successfully. The Success of aboard releasing opened the way for Khmer films to seen in Foreign Cinema such as Puthisean Neang Kong rey
and The Snake Girl. The trend also built up a good relationship with oversea countries for film businesses in Cambodia.
Stars during this era included actress Vichara Dany
, who made hundreds of films but lost her life during the Khmer Rouge regime.
The star of Pos Keng Kang, actress Dy Saveth
, escaped Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge rule and has returned to act in films and teach at Royal University of Phnom Penh
. A leading man of the era was action star Chea Yuthon alongside his wife, Saom Vansodany also a famous actress of the sixties and seventies. Their survivor, son Thorn Tharith, made an autobiographical drama, Chheam Anatha (The Blood of An Orphan), about the family's struggles during the Khmer Rouge time. Kong Sam Oeurn and Van Vanak are other famous leading actors of the era and are also believed to have perished under the communist regime.
King-Father Norodom Sihanouk
(then a prince) also made films, which he wrote, directed and produced himself. They were mostly romantic melodramas with an underlying social message. A cinema fan since his student days in Saigon in the 1930s, he made his first feature Apsara released on August 8, 1966 and made eight other films during the next three years, serving as producer, director, writer, composer and star. His other films during this period include Ombre Sur Angkor (1967), Rose de Bokor, Crepuscule (Twilight) (1969) and Joie de vivre.
, refugees crowded the cities and movie-going remained extremely popular. Among the films at this time were the love-triangle melodrama On srey On and The Time to Cry. Both films featured the music of popular Cambodian singer Sinn Sisamouth
.
The industry's decline began in late 1974, with the fall of Phnom Penh
to the Khmer Rouge imminent. After the Khmer Rouge takeover, the cities were emptied out, and audiences for film shrank. However, the Khmer Rouge itself made some propaganda films to screen at collective meetings, and diplomatic visits were also recorded on film.
With the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the installation of the Vietnam-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea
government (see History of Cambodia (1979-present)), movie houses in Phnom Penh were re-opened. However, there was no domestic film industry because many of the filmmakers and actors from the 1960s and 1970s had been killed by the Khmer Rouge or had fled the country. Negatives and prints of many films were destroyed, stolen, or missing. Many of the films that did survive are in a poor state of quality as there has been no effort of preservation.
Cinema in Cambodia at this time consisted of films from Vietnam
, the Soviet Union
, East European socialist countries and Hindi
movies from India
; films from other nations, such as Hong Kong action cinema
, were banned. Audiences soon tired of the socialist realism
and class struggle depicted in the films.
Cambodia's film industry began a slow comeback starting with Konm Eak Madia Arb
(or Krasue Mom), a horror movie based on Khmer folklore
which has the distinction of being the first movie made in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge era.
Cambodian production companies began to re-emerge and tread the fine line of making films that would entertain people without incurring the wrath of the government. Films from this period include Chet Chorng Cham (Reminding the Mind) and Norouk Pramboun Chaon (Nine Levels of Hell) and told stories about the miseries endured under the Khmer Rouge or lives that flourished under the Vietnam-backed regime. Soon, there were more than 200 production companies, making films that competed for screenings at 30 cinemas in Phnom Penh.
The boom in filmmaking was curtailed, however, by the introduction of VCRs, video cameras and importation of taped foreign television programs, including Thai soap operas.
One sign of progress is the career of French-trained director Rithy Panh
, who escaped Cambodia after seeing his family die under the Khmer Rouge regime. His films focus on the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, and include the docudrama, Rice People
(1994), which was in competition at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
, and was submitted to the 67th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
, the first time a Cambodian film had been submitted for an Oscar.
His other films include the 2000 documentary, The Land of the Wandering Souls
, chronicling the hardships of workers digging a cross-country trench for Cambodia's first fiber-optic cable; the critically acclaimed 2003 documentary S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
, about the Tuol Sleng
prison; and the 2005 drama, The Burnt Theatre
, about a theatre troupe that inhabits the burned-out remains of Phnom Pehn's Suramet National Theatre, which caught fire in 1994 but has never been rebuilt.
Panh has many other projects planned, the chief of which has been developing Bophana, the Audio Visual Center – Cambodia, with an aim towards preserving the country's film, photographic and audio history.
In 2001 Fai Sam Ang directed Kon pous keng kang (The Snake King's Child
), a remake of a classic 1960s Cambodian film. Though it was a Thai co-production, starring Thai leading man Winai Kraibutr
, it was recognized as the first Cambodian film to be released since before the Khmer Rouge era. At the time, Phnom Penh did not yet have any viable commercial cinemas, so the film was screened at the French Cultural Center in Phnom Penh and in outdoor screenings, as well as in a wide commercial release in Thailand cinemas.
The 2003 Phnom Penh riots
, prompted by a newspaper article that falsely quoted Thai actress Suvanant Kongying
saying that Cambodia had stolen Angkor
, resulted in a ban on all Thai films and television programs. To fill the large gap in programming, a resurgence in Cambodian film and TV production began in earnest.
, which depicts the krasue
, a ghostly flying female head with internal organs dangling beneath it and Ghost Banana Tree
which were the hit horror films since the new growing up of khmer film industry. The best movie trophy went to The Crocodile
, a tale of the heroism of a man who killed the beast responsible for the deaths of several people in his village. It starred Cambodian pop singer Preap Sovath
and veteran actress Dy Saveth
as well as The Second prize was received by a legendary Khmer Drama Fantasy film, Moranak Meada
and an inspiring true life drama Gratefulness
received the third prize in the celebration. The award winning film mostly the big hit.
Several films companies and productions, rewake with starting their job of film producing. The Lead Film Campanys eventually reminds of Angkorwat production after The hit Thriller film, The Weird Villa
, also FCI production with their work on Pra Kow Pra Koe and Lady Vampire
or Golden Temple Entertainment of Their most successful, Romance Horror, Min Maya and The Snake King's Grandchild
which both directed by Khmer famous director, Fai Sam Ang.
Other recent films include Tum Teav
16th and 18th century Cambodian folktale A Mother's Heart, by Pan Phuong Bopha, one of the few working female writer-directors in Cambodia.
Khmer Mekong Films
, a production company started by Matthew Robinson, a former executive producer of the UK's top-rated drama EastEnders
, and former head of drama for BBC Wales
, aims to raise the standards both editorially and technically of the Cambodian film industry. The company released its first full-length feature Staying Single When
in March 2007 in Cambodian cinemas. The romantic comedy
about a young man trying to find a wife in Cambodia.
Camerado SE Asia
http://www.camerado.comhttp://pro.imdb.com/company/co0315719/, one of the more consistently innovative media companies in Cambodia, began operations in 2005. In 2007, Camerado launched Cambodia's first independent film
festival, CamboFest
,, and continues to produce long and short form work in the region. Although a private sector entity, Camerado insists on training and hiring Khmer staff for key positions even without an agency or donor mandate to do so.
The creation of the Cambodia Film Commission in 2009 by the ministry of Culture and Fine Arts offers new possibilities for filmmakers to explore Cambodia's numerous astonishing locations. The large scale productions that have been set in Cambodia (City of Ghosts, Two Brothers, Tomb Raider, the Seawall) proves the Kingdom's capacity to host international productions.
In Mid of 2011, Phnom Penh started to see a major change in the cinema scene. Two major malls opened up cinema outlets offering International films in English and with Khmer sub-titles. The Citymall now has "The Legend" cinema with both 3D and 2D English film offering. The Sorya mall's "The Cineplex" offers the same.
was the location for the filming of 1965's Lord Jim
, starring Peter O'Toole
, but it was not until the early 21st century that foreign filmmakers made their return to the country.
The best-known depiction of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge years, 1984's The Killing Fields
, starring the Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor
as journalist Dith Pran
, was actually made in neighboring Thailand.
Since the reopening of Cambodia to international tourism, high-profile directors such as Oliver Stone
and Steven Spielberg
have scouted Cambodia for locations. The 2001 action blockbuster, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
was shot on location around Angkor, and its star, Angelina Jolie
became so enamored with the country that she adopted a Cambodian boy named Maddox and lived there for a time. Other films shot on location around Angkor include Wong Kar-wai
's In the Mood for Love
(which also includes film footage of the 1966 visit of Charles de Gaulle
to Phnom Penh) and Two Brothers
by Jean-Jacques Annaud
in 2003. Matt Dillon
's 2002 drama, City of Ghosts
, was filmed in many locations around the country, including Phnom Penh and the Bokor Hill Station
.
Since 2009, the Cambodia Film Commission has set-up a training program to allow foreign productions to work with a local crew familiar with international standards. Cambodia has also cinema equipment available since 2009 which allows foreign productions to rent professional gear within the country. Cambodia can today provide foreign productions with highly skilled professionals for set construction, wardrobe, grips and lighting.
which seem the cloning of Thai's 1980 Walli, started echoing The Khmer Director to produce the remake film especially remaking the Thai film. Until now, those remakes are Neang Neath, the remake of Nang Nak
as well as The Forest
or Neang Pomiry and many more.
Meanwhile, Producer, 29-year-old Heng Tola, was looking to diversify his computer business when he founded Campro three years ago with several friends.
Making a movie takes Campro about three months and costs an average of US$30,000, including about US$1,000 for the lead actor, he said.
Despite the current taste for horror movies, Heng Tola believes a more serious trend is emerging, prompted in part by the resentment many Cambodians feel about its colonial past and toward domineering neighbors such as Thailand and Vietnam.
Just like the same, The horror films for the new rising, still in The basing of local religions ghost story such as Lady Vampire
, which depicts the krasue
, a ghostly flying female head with internal organs dangling beneath it and Ghost Banana Tree
, an inspiring of the old tradition but mostly no relation with the love story. Between 2004-2006, The Domestic production made around 20 films genrely horror per year. The most producing of the films seem to be FCI Production and Campro Production
which their film mainly the famous one.
In addition, At December 5, 2008, Rankopedia website, listed Cambodia on Country that currently creates the scariest Horror movies with ranked number 20th out of 25th as band score 1.57 by 19 votes. Nieng Arp appeared as the top film for Cambodia followed by The Forest
, Villa Horror
, The Snake King's Child
and finally Secret Well
. The Winner goes to Japan
caused of its famous horror film, Ringu.
However, In The Third Khmer film festival which held in the late of 2007, banned the Ghost films to celebrate as reason of too much making of Horror movies.
The amount of films decreased from more than 60 in 2006 to less than ten in 2009. In 2009, most film directors turned to producing short films and television series rather than actual movies as they once have in previous years.
Many locally made films are simple and similar low budget horror and love stories. Many Cambodian's prefer international films which are better in quality and whose tickets are also usually cheaper when compared to domestic films. Yet many Cambodian's have expressed a desire to see domestic films if only they were on par with those produced during the industry's height.
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
regime, competition from video and television has meant that the Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
n film industry is relatively small today.
The early years
As early as the 1920s, documentary films were shot in Cambodia by foreign filmmakers. By the 1930s, King Norodom SihanoukNorodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
had a desire for films and dreamed of stardom before he was chosen to be King by the French, this gave the King second thoughts about his dream to become an actor or director, but he kept this thought in mind.The first Cambodian-made films were made in the 1950s by filmmakers who had studied overseas. They included Roeum Sophon, Ieu Pannakar
Ieu Pannakar
Ieu Pannakar is a Cambodian film director and senator. Among the first Cambodians to study film making, he is one of Cambodia's pioneering film directors. He is a co-founder of Bophana: The Audio-Visual Resource Center - Cambodia...
and Sun Bun Ly. The United States Information Service held training workshops during this era and provided equipment as well. One film from this time was Dan Prean Lbas Prich, or Footprints of the Hunter, made by off-duty Cambodian military personnel using American equipment and containing footage of Cambodian hill tribes.
Sun Bun Ly's first film was Kar Pear Prumjarei Srei Durakut (Protect Virginity). He also established the first private production company, Ponleu Neak Poan Kampuchea. His success inspired others, such as Ly Bun Yim, to try their hand.
The golden age
In the 1960s, several production companies were started and more movie theaters were built throughout the country. This was the "golden age" of Cambodian cinema, and more than 300 movies were made during the era.Movie tickets were relatively affordable and Cambodian-made movies were widely popular in Cambodia among all classes. Movie-lovers favored traditional-legendary Cambodian movies. At the time about two-thirds of the films released were "boran," legendary films. This kept the audience entertained and the culture alive.
Among the classic films from this period are Lea Haey Duong Dara (Goodbye Duong Dara) and Pos Keng Kang
The Snake King's Wife
The Snake Man is a 1970 Cambodian drama horror film based on a Cambodian myth about a snake goddess, starring Khmer famous actress at era, Dy Saveth and Chea Yuthorn who was hugely popular in Thailand after the film release...
(The Snake King's Wife) by Tea Lim Kun.
During the Golden Age, not all the films were just released in locally but internationally as well. During the 1970s, Cambodia films were well received internationally. . Pos Keng Kang
The Snake King's Wife
The Snake Man is a 1970 Cambodian drama horror film based on a Cambodian myth about a snake goddess, starring Khmer famous actress at era, Dy Saveth and Chea Yuthorn who was hugely popular in Thailand after the film release...
(The Snake King's Wife), a Khmer Horror period, was a big hit in Thailand
Cinema of Thailand
The cinema of Thailand dates back to the early days of filmmaking, when King Chulalongkorn's 1897 visit to Bern, Switzerland was recorded by Francois-Henri Lavancy-Clarke. The film was then brought to Bangkok, where it was exhibited...
while Crocodile Man
Crocodile Man
Crocodile Man is a widely acclaimed Cambodian horror film released in 1972 by Hui Keung. It starred famous Khmer actress Dy Saveth...
from 1974, was screened in Hong Kong successfully. The Success of aboard releasing opened the way for Khmer films to seen in Foreign Cinema such as Puthisean Neang Kong rey
Puthisean Neang Kong rey (film)
Puthisen Neang Kong Rey is a 1972 Cambodian film based on a Cambodian myth of the Lady Kong Rey, who is the namesake of a mountain range in Kampong Chhang, Cambodia...
and The Snake Girl. The trend also built up a good relationship with oversea countries for film businesses in Cambodia.
Stars during this era included actress Vichara Dany
Vichara Dany
Vichara Dany was a widely popular actress in Cambodia who most likely made her debut in 1967. She starred in a majority of films which include Thavory Meas Bong, Tep Sodachan, and Sovann Pancha during the nation's golden age of cinema. She is often paired on screen with fellow actor Kong...
, who made hundreds of films but lost her life during the Khmer Rouge regime.
The star of Pos Keng Kang, actress Dy Saveth
Dy Saveth
Dy Saveth is a renowned Cambodian actress and first Miss Cambodia . She featured several films throughout the 1960s until the communist takeover in 1975, and later from 1993 to present. She married Huoy Keng, an actor, producer and film director, during the 1970s. Just as Van Vanak ran his own...
, escaped Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge rule and has returned to act in films and teach at Royal University of Phnom Penh
Royal University of Phnom Penh
The Royal University of Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s oldest and largest university located in the capital Phnom Penh. It hosts more than 10000 students across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs...
. A leading man of the era was action star Chea Yuthon alongside his wife, Saom Vansodany also a famous actress of the sixties and seventies. Their survivor, son Thorn Tharith, made an autobiographical drama, Chheam Anatha (The Blood of An Orphan), about the family's struggles during the Khmer Rouge time. Kong Sam Oeurn and Van Vanak are other famous leading actors of the era and are also believed to have perished under the communist regime.
King-Father Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk
Norodom Sihanouk regular script was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his semi-retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favor of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni...
(then a prince) also made films, which he wrote, directed and produced himself. They were mostly romantic melodramas with an underlying social message. A cinema fan since his student days in Saigon in the 1930s, he made his first feature Apsara released on August 8, 1966 and made eight other films during the next three years, serving as producer, director, writer, composer and star. His other films during this period include Ombre Sur Angkor (1967), Rose de Bokor, Crepuscule (Twilight) (1969) and Joie de vivre.
The communist era
In the years leading up to the takeover by the Khmer RougeKhmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
, refugees crowded the cities and movie-going remained extremely popular. Among the films at this time were the love-triangle melodrama On srey On and The Time to Cry. Both films featured the music of popular Cambodian singer Sinn Sisamouth
Sinn Sisamouth
Sinn Sisamouth was a famous and highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter in the 1950s to the 1970s.Widely considered the "King of Khmer music", Sisamouth, along with Ros Sereysothea, Pan Ron, and other artists, was part of a thriving pop music scene in Phnom Penh that blended elements of Khmer...
.
The industry's decline began in late 1974, with the fall of Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
to the Khmer Rouge imminent. After the Khmer Rouge takeover, the cities were emptied out, and audiences for film shrank. However, the Khmer Rouge itself made some propaganda films to screen at collective meetings, and diplomatic visits were also recorded on film.
With the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam, the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the installation of the Vietnam-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea
People's Republic of Kampuchea
The People's Republic of Kampuchea , , was founded in Cambodia by the Salvation Front, a group of Cambodian leftists dissatisfied with the Khmer Rouge, after the overthrow of Democratic Kampuchea, Pol Pot's government...
government (see History of Cambodia (1979-present)), movie houses in Phnom Penh were re-opened. However, there was no domestic film industry because many of the filmmakers and actors from the 1960s and 1970s had been killed by the Khmer Rouge or had fled the country. Negatives and prints of many films were destroyed, stolen, or missing. Many of the films that did survive are in a poor state of quality as there has been no effort of preservation.
Cinema in Cambodia at this time consisted of films from Vietnam
Cinema of Vietnam
The cinema of Vietnam originates in the 1920s, and has largely been shaped by wars that have been fought in the country from the 1940s to the 1970s. Better known Vietnamese language films include Cyclo, The Scent of Green Papaya and Vertical Ray of the Sun, all by French-trained Việt Kiều director...
, the Soviet Union
Cinema of the Soviet Union
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia" despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history,...
, East European socialist countries and Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
movies from India
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
; films from other nations, such as Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...
, were banned. Audiences soon tired of the socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
and class struggle depicted in the films.
Cambodia's film industry began a slow comeback starting with Konm Eak Madia Arb
My Mother is Arb
My Mother is Arb is a Cambodian horror film.-Background:This Khmer folklore-based movie was produced shortly after the fall of Pol Pot's destructive Democratic Kampuchea regime, during the painful rebuilding of Cambodian cultural life in the pro-Soviet People's Republic of Kampuchea...
(or Krasue Mom), a horror movie based on Khmer folklore
Krasue
The krasue is a certain female spirit of Southeast Asian mythology.This ghost has been the subject of a number of movies in the region, including Konm Eak Madia Arb , a Cambodian horror movie which has the distinction of being the first movie made in the People's Republic of Kampuchea after the...
which has the distinction of being the first movie made in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge era.
Cambodian production companies began to re-emerge and tread the fine line of making films that would entertain people without incurring the wrath of the government. Films from this period include Chet Chorng Cham (Reminding the Mind) and Norouk Pramboun Chaon (Nine Levels of Hell) and told stories about the miseries endured under the Khmer Rouge or lives that flourished under the Vietnam-backed regime. Soon, there were more than 200 production companies, making films that competed for screenings at 30 cinemas in Phnom Penh.
The boom in filmmaking was curtailed, however, by the introduction of VCRs, video cameras and importation of taped foreign television programs, including Thai soap operas.
Slow comeback
From 1990 to 1994, hundreds of local Cambodian movies were released within each year. The most amount of films released at the time were all filmed in 1993, during the time of the UNTAC.However it all ended in 1994 due to the governments demand over Cambodian movies being incomparable to foreign films. Thus, most Cambodian production turned to karaoke in 1995 and by 1996, HD quality cameras were widely available in Cambodia unlike the early 90s.Since the early 1990s, the local industry has started a slow comeback.One sign of progress is the career of French-trained director Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh is an internationally and critically acclaimed Cambodian documentary film director and screenwriter.The French-schooled director's films focus on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia...
, who escaped Cambodia after seeing his family die under the Khmer Rouge regime. His films focus on the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge, and include the docudrama, Rice People
Rice People
Rice People is a 1994 Cambodian drama film directed and co-written by Rithy Panh. Adapted from the 1966 novel Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan , by Malaysian author Shahnon Ahmad, which is set in the Malaysian state of Kedah, Rice People is the story of a rural family in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia,...
(1994), which was in competition at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
1994 Cannes Film Festival
The 1994 Cannes Film Festival started on 12 May and ran until 23 May. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino.-Official Selection:*Clint Eastwood *Catherine Deneuve...
, and was submitted to the 67th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, the first time a Cambodian film had been submitted for an Oscar.
His other films include the 2000 documentary, The Land of the Wandering Souls
The Land of the Wandering Souls
The Land of the Wandering Souls, or La terre des âmes errantes, is a 2000 French-Cambodian documentary film directed by Rithy Panh.-Synopsis:...
, chronicling the hardships of workers digging a cross-country trench for Cambodia's first fiber-optic cable; the critically acclaimed 2003 documentary S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a 2003 documentary film directed by Rithy Panh. Rithy, himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, brought together two former prisoners of the regime with their former captors at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former Security Prison 21 under the Khmer Rouge.-...
, about the Tuol Sleng
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a museum in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. The site is a former high school which was used as the notorious Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge communist regime from its rise to power in 1975 to its fall in 1979...
prison; and the 2005 drama, The Burnt Theatre
The Burnt Theatre
The Burnt Theatre, or Les Artistes du Théâtre Brûlé, is a 2005 French-Cambodian docudrama directed and co-written by Rithy Panh. A blend of fact and fiction, based on the actual lives of the actors, the film depicts a troupe of actors and dancers struggling to practise their art in the burned-out...
, about a theatre troupe that inhabits the burned-out remains of Phnom Pehn's Suramet National Theatre, which caught fire in 1994 but has never been rebuilt.
Panh has many other projects planned, the chief of which has been developing Bophana, the Audio Visual Center – Cambodia, with an aim towards preserving the country's film, photographic and audio history.
In 2001 Fai Sam Ang directed Kon pous keng kang (The Snake King's Child
The Snake King's Child
The Snake King's Child is a 2001 Cambodian-Thai horror film, based on a Cambodian myth about the half-human daughter of a snake god. It is the first full-length feature film to be produced in Cambodia since before the Khmer Rouge era...
), a remake of a classic 1960s Cambodian film. Though it was a Thai co-production, starring Thai leading man Winai Kraibutr
Winai Kraibutr
Winai Kraibutr is a Thai actor. He has appeared in a number of films that have achieved significant success at the Thai box office. He is considered a bankable star in Thailand and has achieved minor international exposure through the international release of Bang Rajan...
, it was recognized as the first Cambodian film to be released since before the Khmer Rouge era. At the time, Phnom Penh did not yet have any viable commercial cinemas, so the film was screened at the French Cultural Center in Phnom Penh and in outdoor screenings, as well as in a wide commercial release in Thailand cinemas.
The 2003 Phnom Penh riots
2003 Phnom Penh riots
In January 2003, a Cambodian newspaper article falsely alleged that a Thai actress claimed that Angkor Wat belonged to Thailand. Other Cambodian print and radio media picked up the report and furthered the nationalistic sentiment which resulted in riots in Phnom Penh on January 29 where the Thai...
, prompted by a newspaper article that falsely quoted Thai actress Suvanant Kongying
Suvanant Kongying
Suvanant Kongying is a Thai actress. She was the lead actress in many Thai lakorns in the 1990s-2000s. She has appeared in several lakorns , including Dao pra sook with Sornram Teppitak, in which she played Dao, the main character. She has been voted people's choice winner for top actress for many...
saying that Cambodia had stolen Angkor
Angkor
Angkor is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The word Angkor is derived from the Sanskrit nagara , meaning "city"...
, resulted in a ban on all Thai films and television programs. To fill the large gap in programming, a resurgence in Cambodian film and TV production began in earnest.
Recent developments
A national film festival was held in November 2005. Many of the films shown were locally made low-budget horror films, such as Lady VampireNieng Arp
Nieng Arp with international title as Lady Vampire also known as Vampire and Bodyless is a 2004 Cambodian horror film. The film features upon the religion and belief of domestic folklore about Krasue which present in common around Southeast Asia.Directed by a khmer-born director who took some...
, which depicts the krasue
Krasue
The krasue is a certain female spirit of Southeast Asian mythology.This ghost has been the subject of a number of movies in the region, including Konm Eak Madia Arb , a Cambodian horror movie which has the distinction of being the first movie made in the People's Republic of Kampuchea after the...
, a ghostly flying female head with internal organs dangling beneath it and Ghost Banana Tree
Ghost Banana Tree
Ghost Banana Tree is a 2005 film, one of the Khmer success horror films based on a Cambodian haunting ghost story about a vengeful ghost woman that climbs a banana tree to kill her husband...
which were the hit horror films since the new growing up of khmer film industry. The best movie trophy went to The Crocodile
The Crocodile
The Crocodile is a Cambodian award-winning Horror action film based on the crocodile's influence in Khmer culture. The film was released twice. It was originally released in July 2005 in more than 6 theatres and then screened again in 21-25 November 2007 at the Chenla Theatre after its showing...
, a tale of the heroism of a man who killed the beast responsible for the deaths of several people in his village. It starred Cambodian pop singer Preap Sovath
Preap Sovath
Preap Sovath is a singer in Cambodia. He records for Cambodian production company Rasmey Hang Meas....
and veteran actress Dy Saveth
Dy Saveth
Dy Saveth is a renowned Cambodian actress and first Miss Cambodia . She featured several films throughout the 1960s until the communist takeover in 1975, and later from 1993 to present. She married Huoy Keng, an actor, producer and film director, during the 1970s. Just as Van Vanak ran his own...
as well as The Second prize was received by a legendary Khmer Drama Fantasy film, Moranak Meada
Moranak Meada
Moranak Meada is a Khmer 2004 fantasy/drama film which received several awards in Khmer film festival including second prize of silver award for best movies.The film based on Khmer old folk tales which similar to Thai legend Bla Boo Thong and European fairy tale Cinderella.- Plot :After her...
and an inspiring true life drama Gratefulness
Gratefulness
Gratefulness also Katanho is a Cambodian Drama film, based on a true life of a young girl who lived in Phnom Pehn. The film was considered one of the best films of the year in Cambodia. The film had a highly successful theatrical run and received several awards at the Khmer film festival. These...
received the third prize in the celebration. The award winning film mostly the big hit.
Several films companies and productions, rewake with starting their job of film producing. The Lead Film Campanys eventually reminds of Angkorwat production after The hit Thriller film, The Weird Villa
The Weird Villa
The Weird Villa is a Khmer psychological thriller which was labeled as based on a true story during the French colonial period of Cambodia. With a psychological plotline, the style and theme deemed to inspire from numerous foreign classic thriller concepts such as the South Korea horror film A Tale...
, also FCI production with their work on Pra Kow Pra Koe and Lady Vampire
Nieng Arp
Nieng Arp with international title as Lady Vampire also known as Vampire and Bodyless is a 2004 Cambodian horror film. The film features upon the religion and belief of domestic folklore about Krasue which present in common around Southeast Asia.Directed by a khmer-born director who took some...
or Golden Temple Entertainment of Their most successful, Romance Horror, Min Maya and The Snake King's Grandchild
The Snake King's Grandchild
The Snake King's Grandchild is a 2006 Cambodian Romance horror film, a sequel to a 2001 film, The Snake King's Child. It is a successful and award-winning in the khmer national film festivalwhere it received 4 awards including best actress.-Plot:...
which both directed by Khmer famous director, Fai Sam Ang.
Other recent films include Tum Teav
Tum Teav
Tum Teav is a classic tragic love story of the Literature of Cambodia that has been told throughout the country since at least the middle of the 19th century....
16th and 18th century Cambodian folktale A Mother's Heart, by Pan Phuong Bopha, one of the few working female writer-directors in Cambodia.
Khmer Mekong Films
Khmer Mekong Films
Khmer Mekong Films is a major Cambodian film and video production company based in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia.It grew out of the team created and trained by the BBC in 2004 to make a 100-episode TV drama about HIV for Cambodian television...
, a production company started by Matthew Robinson, a former executive producer of the UK's top-rated drama EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, and former head of drama for BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
, aims to raise the standards both editorially and technically of the Cambodian film industry. The company released its first full-length feature Staying Single When
Staying Single When
Staying Single When, released in Cambodia's main cinema, 'Kirirom' in March 2007 and premiered on CTN, Cambodia's most popular TV channel, in October 2007 , is a 100-minute romantic comedy from the production company Khmer Mekong Films .In Staying Single When, KMF pioneered the use of "real voices"...
in March 2007 in Cambodian cinemas. The romantic comedy
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
about a young man trying to find a wife in Cambodia.
Camerado SE Asia
Camerado
Camerado is a commercial film, video and multimedia production group that produces independent, multicultural-themed films, videos, and media events with a prosocial agenda....
http://www.camerado.comhttp://pro.imdb.com/company/co0315719/, one of the more consistently innovative media companies in Cambodia, began operations in 2005. In 2007, Camerado launched Cambodia's first independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
festival, CamboFest
CamboFest, Cambodia Film Festival
CamboFest is an international film festival in Cambodia started in 2007 by Camerado. It is Cambodia's first internationally recognized film festival, and one of the first regular international movie events in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge era....
,, and continues to produce long and short form work in the region. Although a private sector entity, Camerado insists on training and hiring Khmer staff for key positions even without an agency or donor mandate to do so.
The creation of the Cambodia Film Commission in 2009 by the ministry of Culture and Fine Arts offers new possibilities for filmmakers to explore Cambodia's numerous astonishing locations. The large scale productions that have been set in Cambodia (City of Ghosts, Two Brothers, Tomb Raider, the Seawall) proves the Kingdom's capacity to host international productions.
In Mid of 2011, Phnom Penh started to see a major change in the cinema scene. Two major malls opened up cinema outlets offering International films in English and with Khmer sub-titles. The Citymall now has "The Legend" cinema with both 3D and 2D English film offering. The Sorya mall's "The Cineplex" offers the same.
Foreign films made in Cambodia
Cambodia's Angkor WatAngkor Wat
Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu,...
was the location for the filming of 1965's Lord Jim
Lord Jim (1965 film)
Lord Jim is a 1965 adventure film made by Columbia Pictures. It was produced and directed by Richard Brooks with Jules Buck and Peter O'Toole as associate producers, from a screenplay by Brooks...
, starring Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
, but it was not until the early 21st century that foreign filmmakers made their return to the country.
The best-known depiction of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge years, 1984's The Killing Fields
The Killing Fields (film)
The Killing Fields is a 1984 British drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. The film, which won three Academy Awards, was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Sam Waterston as...
, starring the Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor
Haing S. Ngor
Dr. Haing Somnang Ngor was a Cambodian American physician, actor and author who is best known for winning the 1985 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his debut performance in the movie The Killing Fields, in which he portrayed Cambodian journalist and refugee Dith Pran. His mother was...
as journalist Dith Pran
Dith Pran
Dith Pran was a Cambodian photojournalist best known as a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian Genocide. He was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields . He was portrayed in the movie by first-time actor Haing S. Ngor , who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
, was actually made in neighboring Thailand.
Since the reopening of Cambodia to international tourism, high-profile directors such as Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
have scouted Cambodia for locations. The 2001 action blockbuster, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 adventure thriller film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001. The film was a commercial success...
was shot on location around Angkor, and its star, Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
became so enamored with the country that she adopted a Cambodian boy named Maddox and lived there for a time. Other films shot on location around Angkor include Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
's In the Mood for Love
In the Mood for Love
In the Mood for Love is a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung...
(which also includes film footage of the 1966 visit of Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
to Phnom Penh) and Two Brothers
Two Brothers
Two Brothers is a 2004 adventure family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is about two tigers who are separated as cubs and then reunited years later.-Plot:...
by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, film producer and screenwriter.- Biography :Annaud was born in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne...
in 2003. Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
's 2002 drama, City of Ghosts
City of Ghosts
City of Ghosts is a 2002 drama film co-written, directed by and starring Matt Dillon, about a con artist who must go to Cambodia to collect his share in money collected from an insurance scam...
, was filmed in many locations around the country, including Phnom Penh and the Bokor Hill Station
Bokor Hill Station
Bokor Hill Station is an abandoned French town in Preah Monivong National Park. Construction started in 1921 on Dâmrei Mountains, about 20 km as the crow flies West from the town of Kampot, southern Cambodia...
.
Since 2009, the Cambodia Film Commission has set-up a training program to allow foreign productions to work with a local crew familiar with international standards. Cambodia has also cinema equipment available since 2009 which allows foreign productions to rent professional gear within the country. Cambodia can today provide foreign productions with highly skilled professionals for set construction, wardrobe, grips and lighting.
Remaking film of the foreign version
As well as The waking of Khmer film industry which led The Cambodia production and Director to produced more films again. Since 2003, The appearance of GratefulnessGratefulness
Gratefulness also Katanho is a Cambodian Drama film, based on a true life of a young girl who lived in Phnom Pehn. The film was considered one of the best films of the year in Cambodia. The film had a highly successful theatrical run and received several awards at the Khmer film festival. These...
which seem the cloning of Thai's 1980 Walli, started echoing The Khmer Director to produce the remake film especially remaking the Thai film. Until now, those remakes are Neang Neath, the remake of Nang Nak
Nang Nak
Nang Nak is a romantic tragedy and horror film directed by Nonzee Nimibutr in 1999 through Buddy Film and Video Production Co. in Thailand, based on a legend. It features the life of a devoted ghost wife and the unsuspecting husband.-Plot:...
as well as The Forest
The Forest (2005 film)
The Forest is a 2005 Cambodian monster thriller film directed by Heng Tola, the director of Khmer Blockbuster films, such as Gratefulness and Neang Neath....
or Neang Pomiry and many more.
Horror genre increasing
In The recent of years at the new development of films, The Khmer producer brought a new taste for movie with the horror genre but within low budget and weak special effect. In addition, The genres revealed a big hit for the local audiences especially for the young age started attracting for khmer horror movies after the absent for long times. The manager of FCI Productions, which made Nieng Arp, a big hit khmer horror film, Korm Chanthy said We make movies to suit the domestic market and the demand of our youths and They like to watch horror movies because they make them feel excited, thrilled and terrified.Meanwhile, Producer, 29-year-old Heng Tola, was looking to diversify his computer business when he founded Campro three years ago with several friends.
Making a movie takes Campro about three months and costs an average of US$30,000, including about US$1,000 for the lead actor, he said.
Despite the current taste for horror movies, Heng Tola believes a more serious trend is emerging, prompted in part by the resentment many Cambodians feel about its colonial past and toward domineering neighbors such as Thailand and Vietnam.
Just like the same, The horror films for the new rising, still in The basing of local religions ghost story such as Lady Vampire
Nieng Arp
Nieng Arp with international title as Lady Vampire also known as Vampire and Bodyless is a 2004 Cambodian horror film. The film features upon the religion and belief of domestic folklore about Krasue which present in common around Southeast Asia.Directed by a khmer-born director who took some...
, which depicts the krasue
Krasue
The krasue is a certain female spirit of Southeast Asian mythology.This ghost has been the subject of a number of movies in the region, including Konm Eak Madia Arb , a Cambodian horror movie which has the distinction of being the first movie made in the People's Republic of Kampuchea after the...
, a ghostly flying female head with internal organs dangling beneath it and Ghost Banana Tree
Ghost Banana Tree
Ghost Banana Tree is a 2005 film, one of the Khmer success horror films based on a Cambodian haunting ghost story about a vengeful ghost woman that climbs a banana tree to kill her husband...
, an inspiring of the old tradition but mostly no relation with the love story. Between 2004-2006, The Domestic production made around 20 films genrely horror per year. The most producing of the films seem to be FCI Production and Campro Production
Campro Production
Campro Production was a Cambodian film and Karaoke production company based in Phnom Penh that operated from 2003 to 2007.-History:The company was founded in early 2003 by a group of film students as a company that imported Asian horror films. Heng Tola was one of the producers...
which their film mainly the famous one.
In addition, At December 5, 2008, Rankopedia website, listed Cambodia on Country that currently creates the scariest Horror movies with ranked number 20th out of 25th as band score 1.57 by 19 votes. Nieng Arp appeared as the top film for Cambodia followed by The Forest
The Forest (2005 film)
The Forest is a 2005 Cambodian monster thriller film directed by Heng Tola, the director of Khmer Blockbuster films, such as Gratefulness and Neang Neath....
, Villa Horror
Villa Horror
Villa Horror is a 2006 Khmer horror film, produced by Campro production.- Plot :A Ghost of a man possessed the old villa seeking revenge from the family of a man who had stolen this villa for decades. He started his revenge by killing the builder, the family's relative and everyone who wanted this...
, The Snake King's Child
The Snake King's Child
The Snake King's Child is a 2001 Cambodian-Thai horror film, based on a Cambodian myth about the half-human daughter of a snake god. It is the first full-length feature film to be produced in Cambodia since before the Khmer Rouge era...
and finally Secret Well
Secret Well
Secret Well is a 2007 Cambodian horror film. The Film provide a horror style from 2002's The Ring.-Plot:A family moves into an old villa that belonged to their relative for a hundred years...
. The Winner goes to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
caused of its famous horror film, Ringu.
However, In The Third Khmer film festival which held in the late of 2007, banned the Ghost films to celebrate as reason of too much making of Horror movies.
Recent decline
By the end of 2007, the industry faces a challenge as audience numbers began to decline. Once again many theaters have begun closing down along with the disappearing film production companies. At its height between 1965–1975, Cambodia had at least 30 theaters in operation as opposed to the 13 now. Critics have blamed the decline of industry on weak acting and directing along with a poor script and storyline, but poor enforcement of intellectual property in Cambodia also continues to impact the country's credibility in the local and international media trade.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010092842333/Business/it-firms-in-piracy-roadblock.htmlThe amount of films decreased from more than 60 in 2006 to less than ten in 2009. In 2009, most film directors turned to producing short films and television series rather than actual movies as they once have in previous years.
Many locally made films are simple and similar low budget horror and love stories. Many Cambodian's prefer international films which are better in quality and whose tickets are also usually cheaper when compared to domestic films. Yet many Cambodian's have expressed a desire to see domestic films if only they were on par with those produced during the industry's height.
Notable films
- An Euil Srey An (1972)
- Tep SodachanTep SodachanTep Sodachan is a widely acclaimed Cambodian film released in 1968 by Van Chan Pheap Yun. It was directed by Lay Nguon Heng and stars Kong Sam Oeurn, Vichara Dany, and Saksi Sbong. It has become one of the more enduring creations from the nation's pre-communist era and copies are still sold...
(1968) - Thavory Meas BongThavory meas bongThavory Meas Bong is a Cambodian melodramatic film of the late 1960s directed by Uon Kon Thuok of Korng Chak Pheap Yun. The film stars Kong Som Oeurn, Saom Vansodany, Vichara Dany and So Hean.-Soundtrack:-References:* *...
(1960s) - See Angkor and DieSee Angkor and DieSee Angkor and Die is a 1993 Cambodian romantic drama film directed by Norodom Sihanouk.-Plot summary:A young author with an incurable illness wishes to return to Angkor Wat to spend his final days, but his wife remains in Phnom Penh, sending a young cousin to go instead. While his wife makes plans...
(1993) - Rice PeopleRice PeopleRice People is a 1994 Cambodian drama film directed and co-written by Rithy Panh. Adapted from the 1966 novel Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan , by Malaysian author Shahnon Ahmad, which is set in the Malaysian state of Kedah, Rice People is the story of a rural family in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia,...
(1994) - One Evening After the WarOne Evening After the WarOne Evening After the War is a 1998 Cambodian drama film, directed and co-written by Rithy Panh...
(1998) - The Land of the Wandering SoulsThe Land of the Wandering SoulsThe Land of the Wandering Souls, or La terre des âmes errantes, is a 2000 French-Cambodian documentary film directed by Rithy Panh.-Synopsis:...
(2000) - The Snake King's ChildThe Snake King's ChildThe Snake King's Child is a 2001 Cambodian-Thai horror film, based on a Cambodian myth about the half-human daughter of a snake god. It is the first full-length feature film to be produced in Cambodia since before the Khmer Rouge era...
(2001) - S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing MachineS-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing MachineS-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a 2003 documentary film directed by Rithy Panh. Rithy, himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, brought together two former prisoners of the regime with their former captors at Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former Security Prison 21 under the Khmer Rouge.-...
(2003) - Tum Teav (2003)
- The Weird VillaThe Weird VillaThe Weird Villa is a Khmer psychological thriller which was labeled as based on a true story during the French colonial period of Cambodia. With a psychological plotline, the style and theme deemed to inspire from numerous foreign classic thriller concepts such as the South Korea horror film A Tale...
(2004) - Ghost Banana TreeGhost Banana TreeGhost Banana Tree is a 2005 film, one of the Khmer success horror films based on a Cambodian haunting ghost story about a vengeful ghost woman that climbs a banana tree to kill her husband...
(2005) - The ForestThe Forest (2005 film)The Forest is a 2005 Cambodian monster thriller film directed by Heng Tola, the director of Khmer Blockbuster films, such as Gratefulness and Neang Neath....
(2005) - The Haunted HouseThe Haunted House (2005 film)The Haunted House is a Khmer 2005 successful horror film based on a rumor spread throughout Kampong Chhnang province regarding a large deserted house made of black wood, found along Nation Road #5 in Cambodia.The Fifth film produced by Campro Production....
(2005) - The Burnt TheatreThe Burnt TheatreThe Burnt Theatre, or Les Artistes du Théâtre Brûlé, is a 2005 French-Cambodian docudrama directed and co-written by Rithy Panh. A blend of fact and fiction, based on the actual lives of the actors, the film depicts a troupe of actors and dancers struggling to practise their art in the burned-out...
(2005) - The Killing PhoneThe Killing PhoneThe Killing Phone is a Khmer horror film released in Cambodia in 2006. It is a remake of the Thai film 999-9999....
(2006) - Human Or Ghost (2006)
- Staying Single WhenStaying Single WhenStaying Single When, released in Cambodia's main cinema, 'Kirirom' in March 2007 and premiered on CTN, Cambodia's most popular TV channel, in October 2007 , is a 100-minute romantic comedy from the production company Khmer Mekong Films .In Staying Single When, KMF pioneered the use of "real voices"...
(2007) - Secret WellSecret WellSecret Well is a 2007 Cambodian horror film. The Film provide a horror style from 2002's The Ring.-Plot:A family moves into an old villa that belonged to their relative for a hundred years...
(2007) - The Death of water fall (2007)
- AnnoyedAnnoyed (film)Annoyed Rarv Charn, also Tomb and Exotic is a Khmer supernatural horror film which was released in mid 2010, based on a true event. It is a full-length feature film produced in Cambodia...
(2008) - Two ShadowsTwo ShadowsTwo Shadows is an upcoming drama film. It is one of the first films to focus on Cambodian immigrants in the United States seeking surviving family connections in Cambodia since the fall of 1970s communist party, the Khmer Rouge...
(2011) - The Uninvited AncestorsThe Uninvited AncestorsThe Uninvited Ancestors is an upcoming short supernatural horror film. Written and produced by Tim Pek, a Khmer Australian award-winning director who successfully meet critical acclaims with his debut film, The Red Sense. As its modern setting takes place in Australia, all of the cast also involve...
(TBA)
See also
- Cinema of the world
- Communications in CambodiaCommunications in CambodiaCommunications in Cambodia specifically the postal, telegraph and telegram services are regulated under the Ministry of Telecommunications, transport and posts were restored throughout most of the country in the early 1980s during the People's Republic of Kampuchea regime after being disrupted...
- Media of CambodiaMedia of CambodiaThe Cambodian media sector is vibrant and largely unregulated. This situation has led to the establishment of numerous radio, television and print media outlets...
- List of Khmer film
External links
- PDF of student magazine "Kon. The Cinema of Cambodia
- CamboFest, Cambodia Film Festival
- Camerado SE Asia
- Cambodia Film Commission
- Bophana: Audio Visual Resource Center – Cambodia
- Films from Cambodia at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Khmer-language films at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- Cambodia Cultural Profile (Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts/Visiting Arts)
- Asia life.com