Cambodia after 1975

Before 1975 Cambodia produced some thirty films a year and had an active publishing scene. The Khmer Rouge regime destroyed both: cinemas closed, prints burned, artists executed. The few survivors resumed work in the eighties with almost nothing, like Yvon Hem who went back to shooting, or Ly Bun Yim who would spend decades piecing his own lost films back together frame by frame. Rithy Panh would later build an entire body of work on the memory of those years and their missing images.

works 4

• Feature filmThe Snake King's Wifeពស់កេងកងTea Lim Koun · 1970On the eve of the civil war, Khmer cinema, then flourishing, draws its greatest successes from the legends of the country.Cinema
• Feature filmAn Aeuy Srei Anអនអើយស្រីអនLy Bun Yim · 1972As war spreads through the country, the Khmer cinema of the golden age is still making its musical comedies.Cinema
• Feature filmShadow of Darknessស្រមោលអន្ធការYvon Hem · 1987Ten years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodian cinema is reborn by telling the story of their years in power itself.Cinema
• Feature filmRice Peopleអ្នកស្រែRithy Panh · 1994After the genocide and two decades of war, a filmmaker returned from exile shoots in Cambodia, in Khmer, with a Cambodian crew.Cinema