CinéSalon
Golden Slumbers

Le Sommeil d'or


Tuesday, June 4, 2024
7:30pm
FIAF Florence Gould Hall

Dir. Davy Chou, 2011, Cambodia, France, 100min, DCP, Color
Starring Yvon Hem, Dy Saveth, Liv Sreng, Ly Bun Yim
In French and Khmer with English subtitles

Only 30 of the 400 films made in Phnom Penh between the years 1960 and 1975 have survived. The Khmer Rouge burnt the films or allowed them to decay along with many of the country’s studios and cinemas. Director Davy Chou, the grandson of one of the most important film producers of the ‘Golden Age’ of Cambodian cinema, uses this film to help reconstruct the country’s cinematographic legacy. Le Sommeil d’or undertakes a painstaking search for fragments of the past in the present, whether in the form of lobby cards, songs on YouTube or a visit to a karaoke bar housed in what used to be a film studio, and gradually coalesces into a strikingly vibrant memorial.

2012 Berlin International Film Festival

“It is in that gap – between self-protection and exposure; between theory and reality – that this spirited, stimulating film finds its resonance.” –Sight & Sound

“‘Return to Seoul’ is a startling and uneasy wonder, a film that feels like a beautiful sketch of a tornado headed directly toward your house.” –The New York Times