Neak srê

is the first feature by the Paris-resident Cambodian film-maker Pahn and is about Poeuv and his wife Om, who live with their seven children in a remote village. Om has lots of worries. The quality of the land is degenerating and if anything were to happen to her husband, they would be in real problems. Their existence is entirely dependent on the annual rice harvest. One day, Poeuv is poisoned by a thorn in his foot and dies. The most important theme of is rice cultivation, that is shown with all its symbolic tension. The camerawork is breath-taking and gives the landscape a drama of its own.