Fight the Power: Director Chris Kelly talks
A Cambodian Spring
A Cambodian Spring is an intimate portrait of three people caught up in the chaotic and often violent developments shaping modern-day Cambodia.
The film charts the gradual politicisation of two young mothers and one Buddhist monk, the growing wave of land-rights protests that led to the ‘Cambodian Spring’, and the tragic events that followed. Winner at Toronto Hot Docs for best international feature, the film is about the complexities, both political and personal, of fighting for what you believe in.
CinÉ: How did you come to be in Cambodia and why did you want to make a film there?
Chris Kelly: I had gone to do a backpacking thing for a couple of years. I'd been to Australia, Hong Kong, China. I came down through Vietnam and went into Cambodia and spent three months there. I kind of feel in love with the place and decided that I wanted to make a documentary. So I came back to Ireland and got some funding from the Irish Film Board and Northern Ireland Screen, and I went back out again. It took a couple of years. I got home in 2007 and put the funding applications in. Got the money in 2008 and then got back out in 2009 and started filming. The lake was starting to be filled in already at that stage.
And the purpose for you going back was to tell this story about the lake and the inhabitants?
When I'd been there I had started to find out about what was going on in the country. And the whole history of the Khmer Rouge and that permeates society there and casts such a long shadow over all aspects of life. Every person you meet there that is over 45 years old has survived a genocide, whether as a victim or a perpetrator. So there's this real dark history that sits just underneath the surface. And there's been loads of films made about the Khmer rouge and about the history of the past, but nobody seemed to be focusing on what was going on in present-day Cambodia. So I wanted to find a story that looked at modern life and modern society, and the land-grabbing one was the one that came up as being the most pertinent and had the views that were most interesting to me. I put together a funding application to the Irish Film Board and Northern Ireland Screen and they gave me some development money. I went back with that. I was supposed to stay just three months. I went back to recce and to look for characters and locations. I knew about the lake case through research but I went back to the country to have a basic look and to try and meet people. I met the monk quite quickly and I decided then on the angle. We were going to do sit down interviews, a social issue type documentary, just talking heads looking at the forced evictions and land-grabbing thing, but I very
Words: Niall Murphy
28 CinÉireann / May 2018