Approximately
300 films were produced during the “Golden Age” of Cambodian cinema, but only
thirty survived the barbarity of the Communist Khmer Rouge. That means one missing
reel of an otherwise intact Cambodian feature is as maddeningly and
tantalizingly significant as the legendary lost bits of The Magnificent Ambersons. One young Cambodian woman sets out to
find or recreate such footage, but her search will bring her face-to-face with
history both national and personal in Sotho Kulikar’s The Last Reel (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival.
Sophoun
is at a crossroads. Disinterested in school and disinclined to submit to her military
father’s arranged marriage, she has been avoiding home life as much as
possible. Unfortunately, that also means she has neglected her increasingly
age-addled mother. Having fallen in with a delinquent crowd, she is forced to
take refuge one night in a decrepit old movie theater. Much to her surprise,
she finds a movie poster with her mother’s face prominently displayed.
As
she learns from the standoffish proprietor, her mother was once a movie star,
known as Sothea and he has the only print of her final film. In fact, he
compulsively screens it every night, but alas, it is incomplete. Yet, that
initially adds to its allure for Sophoun. Did her mother’s character chose the
prince she was betrothed to, or the peasant who saved her from a jealous nobleman?
Even
with the former filmmaker-projectionist’s help, Sophoun has no luck tracking
down either the missing reel or the original screenplay. However, her bad boy
boyfriend and the university film department will help recreate the conclusion.
At this point, they head into the field, which turns out to be part of the
Killing Fields. As her reluctant movie mentor’s memories come flooding back,
things start getting interesting for all concerned.
The
loss of Cambodia’s cinematic heritage is a true tragedy, especially since those
Angkor costume epics look so amazing. The
Long Way Home, the film-within-the-film, gives us an enticing hint of what
they were like. However, Sotho and screenwriter Ian Masters incorporate Sothea’s
film into the narrative in even deeper ways. Structurally, Reel is a very ambitious work—and they largely pull it off. There
are a whole heck of a lot of third act revelations, but rather than feeling
forced, they organically represent realities of post-Pol Pot Cambodian life.
Any
film that brings Dy Saveth (considered the only living survivor of the Golden
Age) back onto the silver screen earns its props right there. She is downright
haunting as Sothea, especially given the meta-significance of her character.
Nevertheless, it is Ma Rynet who must carry the film, being on-screen almost
every second. Fortunately, she has more than the necessary energy and presence
required. There is a certain unpolished naiveté to her performance that works
quite well in the context of Masters’ narrative. Yet, it is prominent filmmaker
Sok Sothun who really lowers the boom as the physically and spiritually scarred
projectionist.
