The looming, angular hulk of the central railway station stands incongruously at one end of what appears to be a sodden football field. A once black-and-white photograph of a typically colonial French villa, touched up in after-the-fact colour, morphs into the broad grin of a chuckling face. In one ageing ink rendering, modest fishing boats bob in the waters around a small cluster of shacks with corrugated rooves, the fronds of giant palm trees reaching between them for the skies.
That was Phnom Penh then. Other, more familiar, images capture the city more as we, its current residents, know and love/loathe it. This is Phnom Penh now. And a new six-week festival being launched by the Institut francais du Cambodge pays homage to both then and now and everything in between. Once Upon A Time, the trilingual event (English, French and Khmer) which runs from September 30 to November 9, encompasses exhibitions, an architecture contest, film screenings, conferences featuring expert speakers on the issue of urbanism, and at least one party. Here’s the Advisor’s guide to what not to miss:
EXHIBITIONS:
Once Upon A Time: An Urban History Of A Capital
Archive photos, maps and records trace the ‘rich history’ of the city.
Photography: Contemporary Perspectives On The City
Jean-Francois Perigois (France) charts development at the city’s ubiquitous construction sites; Chhay Khana (Cambodia) captures traditional buildings.
CONFERENCES:
Phnom Penh, Heritage City
6:30pm October 2
Men Sisowath Chandevy explains the Heritage Mission’s work to preserve the city.
Sangkum: An Urban History
6:30pm October 7
Khuon Khun-Neay, deputy director-general of the Apsara Authority, traces the history of Sangkum-era architecture.
Phnom Penh, Today & After
6:30pm October 14
A panel of experts offers different perspectives on the ongoing urban development of the Cambodian capital.
SCREENINGS:
6.30pm October 9
Metropolis
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and city planners, the son of the city’s mastermind falls in love with a working-class prophet who predicts the coming of a saviour. Directed by Fritz Lang (1927).
4pm October 10:
Another Tale Of Two Cities
Examines the transformation of neighbourhoods in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine area of Paris and the Spitalfields-Whitechapel districts in London.
6:30pm October 10:
One Night After The War
At the end of the Cambodian civil war, a former kickboxer, who lost most of his family to the Khmer Rouge, struggles to return to normal life.Directed by Rithy Panh (1998).
10am October 11:
The Man Next Door
An Argentinian tale of a clash between neighbours, shot in the only residential home designed and built in the Americas by French architect Le Corbusier. Directed by Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat (2009).
2pm October 11:
Espaces Intercalaire
A crow’s-eye view of the city of Tokyo and its inhabitants in their entirety. Directed by Damien Faure (2012).
5pm October 11:
Fellini-Roma
A semi-autobiographical, poetic comedy drama depicting film director Federico Fellini’s move from his native Rimini to Rome as a youth. The only character that develops in the film is, of course, the Italian capital. Directed by Federico Fellini (1972).
5pm October 18 at Bophana Centre, St. 200:
Twilight
An ailing Khmer prince falls in love with his Indian guest, little suspecting the devotion in his nurse’s heart. Directed by Norodom Sihanouk (1969).
WHO: Francophiles and urbanites
WHAT: Once Upon A Time festival
WHERE: Institut francais, #218 St. 184
WHEN: Now until November 9
WHY: Vive la city!