Film

The Last Reel

The Last Reel (ដុំហ្វីលចុងក្រោយ, Dom Fil Chongkraoy) is a 2014 Cambodian drama directed by Kulikar Sotho about a young woman who finds a lost film starring her mother.[1][2] It was Cambodia's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.[3]

Synopsis

Sophoun is a rebellious teenager in present-day Phnom Penh, the daughter of army colonel Bora.[4] She turns against her father's plans to marry her off and spends time with a local gang leader, while her mother, Srey Mom, is in failing health.[5] Hiding from a rival motorcycle gang in an old cinema, she finds an unfinished melodrama from before the Khmer Rouge years that stars her mother as a young woman.[5][4] The owner, Sokha, acted in the old film and has kept it, though its final reel is missing.[5]

With his help, Sophoun remakes the missing reel, taking her mother's old role, and plans to show the finished film to remind her mother of her former life.[4] The work brings the secrets of Srey Mom, Sokha and Bora into the present and reveals what her parents lived through under the Khmer Rouge.[5][2] Bora is a former Khmer Rouge member who is now a high-ranking colonel, which reflects Cambodia's 1998 policy of bringing former Khmer Rouge members into the government to restore peace.[6] The film is a story of love, family and the ghosts of Cambodia's past.[7][8] It shows how trauma from the Khmer Rouge years passes to a generation that did not live through them, as parents hide a painful past to protect their children.[8]

Background

The Khmer Rouge devastated Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The film's press notes put the number of people killed or who died in those years at an estimated 1.8 million, about one quarter of the population.[4] Filmmakers and actors were singled out. Cambodia made more than 300 films in the decade before the Khmer Rouge, and about 30 of them survive.[4] Kulikar dedicated the film to her father, Om Channy, who she has said was killed by Khmer Rouge soldiers because he was a civilian pilot.[4]

Production and credits

The film was Kulikar's first feature as a director and one of the first feature films directed by a Cambodian woman.[3] She has said that working on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and seeing Cambodia on an international screen moved her to make it.[6] The story draws on the experiences and emotions of her own family and other Cambodian families.[6]

Ian Masters wrote the screenplay. Kulikar, Masters and Murray Pope produced the film for Hanuman Films, and Sotho Tan, Lloyd Levin and Chris Wheeldon were executive producers.[4] Bonnie Elliott was the director of photography, Katie Flaxman edited the film, Christopher Elves composed the music and Brooke Trezise designed the sound.[4] Ma Rynet plays Sophoun, Dy Saveth plays Srey Mom and Hun Sophy plays Colonel Bora, with Rous Mony as Veasna and Sok Sothun as Vichea.[1][4]

Filming took place entirely in Cambodia in 2013, at the temples of Angkor, Phnom Penh, Battambang and Tonle Bati, with a mostly Cambodian crew supported by several foreign technicians.[2] The brochure gives Phnom Penh, Battambang and Siem Reap, from May to July 2013.[4] The film is in Khmer. Hanuman Films and the New York Asian Film Festival give a running time of 106 minutes; the brochure gives 105 minutes.[2][5][4]

Release and reception

The film premiered at the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2014, where it won the Japan Foundation Asia Center's Spirit of Asia Award.[6] It won the Black Dragon Audience Award at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, and had its New York premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival on July 5, 2015.[3][5] It later screened at more than 60 festivals worldwide, and in 2016 it won the Founder's Grand Prize at the Traverse City Film Festival.[2] Cambodia submitted it for the 88th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.[1][3]

The film ran for five weeks in Cambodian cinemas in 2015.[2] In Japan it was released on July 2, 2016, as Theater Phnom Penh, and it ran for a month at Iwanami Hall in Tokyo.[7][2] Jessica Kiang of The Playlist gave it a B and called it a personal, cross-generational story of love, hate, cultural heritage and identity.[9]

At the Cambodia Town Film Festival

The film is one of the films shown at the Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California.

  • 2015: official selection; Best Narrative Feature.[8][10]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wikipedia, The Last Reel
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Hanuman Films, The Last Reel
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Screen, Oscars: Cambodia submits 'The Last Reel'
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 The Last Reel, press brochure (PDF)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 New York Asian Film Festival 2015, The Last Reel
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Japan Foundation Asia Center, The Last Reel and its Determinations: Through the Dark
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 IMDb, The Last Reel (2014)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2015 OFFICIAL SELECTION: THE LAST REEL (archived)
  9. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes, The Last Reel
  10. ↑ Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2015 WINNERS (archived)
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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:38.