Creator

Jimmy Henderson

Jimmy Henderson is a director based in Cambodia who makes action and genre features, including Jailbreak.

Jimmy Henderson is an Italian-born, self-taught film director based in Cambodia, known for the action features Jailbreak (2017) and The Prey (2018).[1][2][3] He has worked as a writer, producer, cinematographer and editor on Cambodian films since he moved to the country in 2011.[4][1]

Early career

Henderson left Italy at 18 and moved to London, where he taught himself editing, camera work and screenwriting.[1] In 2009 a grant from the British Arts Council let him make his first film, The Strangers Within, a documentary about Romani culture set in Eastern Europe.[1] In 2011, after production companies repeatedly turned him down, he moved to Cambodia. He did not know at first whether he would stay, but within about a month he had fallen in love with the country and its people.[1][5]

Career in Cambodia

Three weeks after arriving, Henderson found work as director of photography on a television drama, and he went on to work on two local film dramas.[1][4] In 2012 he was co-director and cinematographer on the Khmer-language horror film Run!, billed as Cambodia's first zombie film.[4][6] He then wrote, directed, shot and edited his first fiction feature, Hanuman (2015), a crime martial arts film set in Phnom Penh. He wrote the screenplay with the British writer Michael Hodgson, and he called it Cambodia's first martial arts and superhero film.[6][4] The Forest Whispers, a fantasy horror film set in Cambodia's distant past, was written and directed in early 2015 and is listed as a 2016 release.[4][2][3]

Henderson said he turned to martial arts because Cambodian cinema needed something different from the horror comedies that filled its screens.[7] With the producers of Hanuman and the production company Kongchak Pictures, he made Jailbreak, a prison action film that he and Michael Hodgson wrote.[1][4][8] Shooting began in July 2016 after three months of preparation, in an abandoned school dressed as a prison and an old army site. Most of his set decorators and his production designer had served time in prison in the United States and had been deported to Cambodia, and they advised him on how the prison should look and feel.[1] He gave each character a fighting style: Bokator for Dara, a mixed martial arts approach for Tharoth Sam's character and wrestling for Tara Vy's.[7]

Jailbreak was released on January 31, 2017.[8][9] It screened at more than 20 festivals, including the Fantasia festival, and received several awards.[4][1] A sequel, Jailbreak: Round 2, was announced in 2021 with Henderson as director.[2]

The Prey (2018), which he directed, edited and co-wrote, starred the Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm. It was the first film in Cambodia to use pyrotechnic special effects, with a professional pyrotechnics crew from Thailand.[10][2][5] It premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in 2018 and also screened at the BFI London Film Festival and the Fantasia Film Festival.[2] Jailbreak and The Prey have helped revive interest in Bokator, the traditional Cambodian martial art, which was banned under the Khmer Rouge.[10]

His later directing credits include The Guardian (Patron Saint: Desperate Rescue, 2020), KTV: Killing Time Violently (2023) and The Last Ritual.[4][3] Henderson has said he sought out Cambodian talent in need of a voice, and that these collaborations helped the country's film industry gain international attention.[5]

Works


  • The Strangers Within (2009), documentary[1]
  • Run! (2012), co-director and cinematographer[4]
  • Hanuman (2015)[6]
  • The Forest Whispers (2016)
  • Jailbreak (2017)
  • The Prey (2018)
  • The Guardian (Patron Saint: Desperate Rescue) (2020)
  • KTV: Killing Time Violently (2023)[4]
  • The Last Ritual[3]
  • Also listed: Duetto (2014), producer; Tenement; Emergency Rescue[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Asian Movie Pulse, Interview with Jimmy Henderson (July 16, 2019)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 IMDb, Jimmy Henderson, news
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Incluvie, Jimmy Henderson
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 IMDb, Jimmy Henderson, Writer, Producer, Director
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Moveable Fest, Interview: Jimmy Henderson on What He Found with The Prey (August 21, 2020)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 ScreenAnarchy, Hanuman: Year of the Monkey, Looking to Put Cambodia on the Action Cinema Map (January 24, 2015)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 City on Fire, Exclusive: Interview with the Cast and Crew of Jailbreak
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cambodia Film Commission, Jailbreak
  9. ↑ Jailbreak (2017 film), Wikipedia
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 BFI, Behind the scenes on Cambodia's first million-dollar action film, The Prey (October 18, 2018)
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:39.