Rice People
aka Neak Sre

Screening: 19 September, 6:30pm

France//Germany
1994

Director: Rithy Panh
Production co: JBA Productions, Thelma Films, La Sept Cinéma, ZDF, TSR
Producer: Jacques Bidou
Screenplay: Rithy Panh, Eve Deboise. Based on the novel Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan by Shahnon Ahmad
Cinematography: Jacques Bouquin
Editors: Andrée Davanture, Marie-Christine Rougerie
Production designer: Nhean Chamnaul
Sound: Jean-Claude Brisson
Music: Mark Marder
Yim Om, mother: Peng Phan
Vong Poeuv, father: Mom Soth
Sokha, eldest daughter: Chhim Naline
Sokhoeun: Va Simorn
Sokhon: Sophy Sodany
Sophon: Muong Danyda
Sophoeun: Pen Sopheary
In Khmer with English subtitles
125 mins
DVD
Certificate TBA

Initially I considered making a documentary covering the cultivation of rice through the four seasons of the crop. That's how I discovered the book because of its title. When I adapted it, I left out the religious, repetitive side, but I kept the dramatic part of it, and I transferred it from Malaysia, its original setting, to Cambodia. I found echoes of my personal experiences in this book. The thorn in the foot, for example, is something that I have suffered. I know that physical pain can lead to madness.

To make a film with Cambodians you have to go to their country. But cinema doesn't exist in Cambodia. No technicians have been trained in our methods. So we went there with the minimum necessary crew, just the cameraman and the production manager, we hired Cambodians and we taught them everything: production schedule; production management; props; the lot. The person responsible for sets learnt how to budget, right down to the number of nails that would be needed. She had to invent a means of building a bamboo house with walls of leaves, a real Cambodian house, except for the fact that it had to bear the weight of fifty people without collapsing; it had to be possible to take the roof off or make a wall disappear.

I had to convince the local people to make the film. For them cinema means action films from Hong Kong or big melodramas from India. So I had to talk to them, give them the script, convince them that our intentions were honest. At the same time, I had to find people who would be able to communicate and express their parts. That talent had to be searched for. To choose them first I took close-up photographs to see what was expressed by their faces and their bodies and how the two matched together. I brought it down to about five people for each part. Then I filmed them on video; they told me the story of their lives, and I tried to make each of them express joy and sorrow. For the part of the father I took a theatre actor who commands much respect in his country. He's the only "professional".

Rithy Panh

Internet Movie Database listing