Film
Funan
Funan is a 2018 animated feature film by Denis Do about a Cambodian mother searching for her young son under the Khmer Rouge.[1] Do, a French director and screenwriter of Cambodian origin, based the story on his mother's memories.[2][1]
Synopsis
The film opens in Phnom Penh, where Chou and her husband, Khuon, live a modern city life.[3] In April 1975 the Khmer Rouge take the city and force the family out.[1] During the evacuation, their four-year-old son, Sovanh, and his grandmother are separated from the family.[1][2] The family is taken to a commune, stripped of its possessions and made to work to exhaustion on little food. Chou works in the fields day and night under guard.[1][2] She learns that Sovanh is in another labor camp but is kept from seeing him. People in the camp die of illness and violence, and Chou's mother dies of starvation.[1]
During the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, Chou and Khuon escape to search for Sovanh and find him among a group of children who seem to have been abandoned. They set out for Thailand. At the border, Khuon gives his life so that Chou and Sovanh can escape.[1] Much of the violence in the film happens off screen, heard in gunfire and seen in the reactions of the characters.[4] The characters are drawn with realistic Cambodian features.[3]
Production and credits
Do made the film after nearly 20 years of research into the Khmer Rouge era.[4] Chou is based on his mother.[1][5] His mother's stories and the testimony of other survivors shaped the screenplay.[3] Do and Magali Pouzol wrote it, with Elise Trinh.[1] Do and the art director, Michael Crouzat, carried out research and fieldwork for the look of the film.[6] Thibault Kientz Agyeman composed the music, and Laurent Prim edited the film.[2]
Bérénice Bejo voices Chou and Louis Garrel voices Khuon.[5] The other voices include Colette Kieffer as Nay, Aude-Laurence Clermont Biver as Chan, Brice Montagne as Meng, Hervé Sogne as Virak, Maxime Baudoin as Hout, Tom Trouffier as Tuch, Lila Lacombe as Lili, Emilie Marié as Peuv, Thierry Jahn as Sok and Franck Sasonoff as the Khmer Rouge chief.[7][5]
Sébastien Onomo, David Grumbach, Annemie Degryse, Louise Génis Cosserat and Justin Stewart produced the film.[2] Les Films d'Ici led the production, with co-producers including BAC Cinéma, Lunanime, ithinkasia and WebSpider Productions.[3] It is a production of France, Luxembourg and Belgium, and its dialogue is mainly in French.[1]
Release and reception
Funan premiered in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 11, 2018, and won the Cristal for a Feature Film.[1][5] It had its Australian premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on October 17, 2018. Its North American premiere came at the Animation Is Film Festival on October 20, 2018, where it won the jury's Grand Prize and the Audience Award.[1] At the Emile Awards on December 8, 2018, Do and Pouzol won Best Writing in a Feature Film, and Nicolas Leroy, Michel Schillings and Nicolas Tran Trong won Best Sound Design in a Feature Film.[1]
BAC Films released the film in France on March 6, 2019, and Lumière released it in Belgium on April 24, 2019.[1] In the United States, GKIDS gave it a limited release from June 7, 2019, in French with English subtitles.[1] Rotten Tomatoes listed 93 percent positive reviews from 28 critics, with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. Metacritic gave it 79 out of 100 from nine critics, which it rates as generally favorable.[1][7]
Funan was the closing film of the 2019 Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California. It screened on September 15, 2019, at 8 p.m. at the Art Theatre Long Beach, after the closing ceremony.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Wikipedia, Funan (film)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2019 Official Selection: FUNAN (archived)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Community Events, 'Funan': A Cambodian Feature Animation (October 23, 2018)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Polygon, Funan follows in the footsteps of Persepolis and Grave of the Fireflies (June 9, 2019)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 IMDb, Funan (2018)
- ↑ Zippy Frames, Funan Review: Patience Makes Heroes (February 2, 2019)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Metacritic, Funan