A International Film Festival
Surviving Bokator premieres at Chaktomuk Theatre on Thursday at 6:30pm. Until They’re Gone will screen at 2:30pm on Sunday at Bophana Center and Cambodian Textiles premieres at Bophana at 5pm on Wednesday.
Bhutan’s first feature length film by Kyentshe Norbu came out in 2002, just two years after the arrival of the internet there and three years after the first local television broadcasts. While the highly religious Himalayan mountain kingdom remains very isolated – in part, it is said, to protect its ancient culture – it is gradually opening to the world, and film is no exception, with now roughly 20 films being produced any given year.
Many such features are local Bollywood-style films for the domestic audience, but international interest has grown for young independent filmmakers such as Norbu, Dechen Roder and Tashi Gyeltshen. Through their pictures, audiences can experience the stunning scenery and rich stories of Bhutan – without paying the hefty visa fees to visit the country itself. These films also take on many of the social issues the country faces as it transitions and opens up to modernity while trying to preserve its distinct identity and Buddhist perspective.
Festivalgoers to this year’s CIFF can experience three different feature films from Bhutan, as well as two shorts.
Norbu, My Beloved Yak, by Pelden Dorji, tells the story of a 20-year-old yak herder, Samten Norbu, who tends the flock for a rich man who lives in a faraway town. Norbu develops an inseparable bond with a calf by the same name but after it is sacrificed as a part of a marriage ritual, the young herder is heartbroken. To mend his spirit he becomes a lama and travels the country in search of his beloved animal’s spirit.
Kushuthara: Pattern of Love, a film by Karma Deki, is the tale of the past and present lives of two people born in different corners of the world who are destined to meet. It’s a spiritual spin on a boy-meets-girl tale that goes far deeper than a simple story of love.
Loday Chophel, the main actor in The Prophecy, will present the film in person and answer questions about his country for audiences. The film tells the story of a young boy destined to be a spiritual leader who unwittingly develops a connection with a young girl who brings her ailing mother to be blessed. What ensues is a spiritual journey that challenges the cultural norms of their country.
The Prophecy will be screening at 3pm at Aeon’s Major Cineplex, with Loday Chopel answering questions in person.
This year’s festival also features a series of films on the subject of nature and the environment. The Kingdom, itself home to some of the world’s most unique and spectacular ecosystems, is also on the front lines of the struggle to protect such ecosystems in the face of resource extraction, climate change and the pressures of development.
Not to be missed is A Cambodian Nature Film: Kingdom of Nature, the first Khmer-language full-length nature documentary about Cambodia. Narrated by naturalist Chea Samban, the film gives audiences a tour of the country’s varied and unique habitats.
Also scheduled on Tuesday evening is a panel discussion with conservation experts, which will occur alongside short documentary screenings from 6pm-8pm at Paññasastra University’s South Campus.
From abroad, Jared P Scott’s The Age of Consequences is an American production that investigates the impacts of climate change: resource scarcity, migration and conflict. By analysing case studies, Scott makes clear the inextricable link between human security and nature.
Viewers can also take a super-high definition tour through the Austrian Alps with Rita Schlamberg’s 2015 documentary Making an Ancient Forest – Kalkalpen National Park, the largest Alpine wilderness area, which has been entirely untouched for nearly 25 years.
On Tuesday there is a panel at Pannasastra University from 6-8pm about the environment, with several short docs to be screened.
Compiled by Rinith Taing, Suntharoth Ouk, Alessandro Marazzi-Sassoon and James Reddick