Bravo for Rithy Panh

Rithy Panh was awarded on Saturday the top prize at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs, in Biarritz, for his documentary movie Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers in the "Creative Documentaries" category.

I had the privilege of seeing the movie in Phnom Penh a couple of months ago and I am glad that the movie won recognition. Shot in "The Building" of Phnom Penh, the movie captures the life and despair of prostitutes who are at the mercy of their clients, the police and the pimps, drugs and AIDS. In the words of Rithy Panh, the film was an attempt at "Going back over my inability to react when I was faced with something intolerable." Apart from an irreproachable behaviour from our part, what can we do in the face of such misery and injustice? NGO's don't get very good reviews from the prostitutes in the film for affectiveness, and I didn't come back from Cambodia as a big fan of NGO's but my impression was nevertheless that they were a way of saying to the young women: "someone cares". Watching Rithy's movie is also one, I hope the movie will be screened in cinemas and on television. Bravo for Rithy Panh.

French links:

• FIPA
• Palmarès catégorie "Documentaires de création et Essais"

French title:

• Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise