Asian Cinema Fund

ACF Asian Cinema Fund

Asian Network of Documentary(AND) Fund

2015 Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund

LIST THE LAST LAKE

Category	BIFF Mecenat Fund
Project	THE LAST LAKE
Director	CHAN Lida
Country	Cambodia, France
Director's Profile	Chan Lida is a 35 years old Cambodian film director. She first approached image analysis as an archivist at the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh. At the time, she was also working as journalist for Radio France International (RFI). After being trained in documentary cinema at the Cambodian Film Commission, she was working with Cambodian filmmaker and producer Rithy Panh. She made her first short film My Yesterday Night in 2010 and her mid-length Red Wedding in 2012 has received several awards at IDFA, Aljazeera, and Gdansk DocFilm. She was also a fellow of the Sundance Institute.

Synopsis: In Cambodia, land is a very sensitive subject. More than half million residents have been forcibly evicted.

On the last biggest vegetable lakes of the city named Boeung Tompoun, a twenty minute drive from Phnom Penh center, an old fisherman OM CHOEUNG THOM, his wife SOM GNIM and his family have been living and exploiting this natural resource lake for more than 30 years. Some fish, others plant and sell various vegetables. The film follows the fate of three different generations: the old fishermen, their daughter and their grandchild while these people face the gradual impact of modern evolutions and the Cambodia City Development Plan.

THE LAST LAKE traces the conflict between humans and nature, between lakes and an outside world that tries to swallow the natural life of the poor people like them. How could the fisherman and their family express a slithery shocking emotion in the new times of Cambodian economic growth?

Director's Note: The idea of THE LAST LAKE loomed in late 2014. While I first met old couple fishermen during my previous documentary research project Red Clothes, I already fell in love with their traditional fishing life and the biggest lake full of green vegetables, birds and fish. The old couple lives in tranquil and nature. Unfortunately early 2015, the coming impact of Cambodian development looms over them. The biggest part of this immense natural lake is filled with sand and they risk becoming displaced citizens in the near future.

I cannot imagine how could they survive without their resourceful natural lake? How about the tradition and the young generation in the future? Why is it essential to be expelled to enter the new modern world?

LIST