12/24 The Land of the wandering Souls @ Bophana

Saturday, December 24 - 4pm
@ Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center

The Land of the wandering Souls
Directed by Rithy Panh, 1h3min, 1999, Khmer version with English subtitles

The documentary follows a group of workers who are laying a high-tech fiber optic cable that will link Cambodia to South East Asia. The project is a hopeful symbol of the country's slow integration into the world community and the modern technological age. However, for the people employed to dig the trench by hand, a group of rice farmers, ex-soldiers, and their families, the poorest of the poor -- the work is a mixed blessing. This film provides a haunting glimpse into the lives of these indigent workers as they encounter the painful remnants of the past - mines, bones, and a landscaped littered with human suffering - and labor to bring Cambodia into the modern age.