SATURDAY 30 | Join the capital’s burgeoning Irish community for a day of beer, cider, gourmet hot dogs and, of course, lashings of Irish stew and live music. Now, will you have a cuppa tea? Ahhhhh! Go on, go on, go on…
WHO: The Irish and all who love ’em
WHAT: Irish Community Event
WHERE: Quealy’s Bar, Street 172
WHEN: 2pm November 30
WHY: “DRINK!!!” – Father Jack
SATURDAY 30 | Perched atop the wobbly stool in The Shark Cage, the rehearsal space at Sharky Bar on Street 130, is the two-tone-haired drummer with Cambodia’s ‘original’ all-Khmer rock band. Above the thunder, preternatural screams. Cartoon Emo, Cambodian alternative/heavy metal rockers, signed with Svang Dara Entertainment in 2010. Their debut album, Shadow, sold in the region of 1,000 copies. Music graduates from the Royal University of Fine Arts, this band of 20-somethings – Boy (vocals), Tom (lead guitar), Din (bass guitar), Dan (guitar), and La (drums) – cite Iowan heavy metal icons Slipknot, and Massachusetts-based metalcore group Killswitch Engage as among their influences. But they’re not altogether unaware of their English forefathers. Mention The Who, The Sex Pistols or The Rolling Stones and five heavily stylised heads – all crowned with spiky technicolour hair – nod in approval. Mention K-Pop and they explode in derisory snorts. And what of Cartoon Emo’s self-penned lyrics? “When we do something bad or wrong to our parents, like a shadow that follows us, we try to think about how bad the experience feels, so we try to do something good, to make a balance. We also sing about lovers, about women, about drugs, but everything is a lesson; education. We try to teach people to be good. Many people in Cambodia are gangsters, or playboys. You see how we are dressed: we may look like them, but we are not gangsters or playboys in our hearts.”
WHO: Cartoon Emo
WHAT: Cambodian alt-rock and heavy metal
WHERE: Sharky Bar, Street 130
WHEN: 9pm November 30
WHY: Thunder and preternatural screams, Khmer style
Ranked #1 out of 537 restaurants in the capital, Friends is a must-eat-at sort of place for three very good reasons: the food, the service and the project. Walk in and admire the ambient greenery, the art-decorated walls and the jazzy atmosphere. Continue with the reassurance that ‘Our ice water is pure, our raw veggies are safe to eat and all our food is MSG free.’ Check out the menu.
The tapas rate highly. Chip lovers can tuck into the crispy zucchini and cheddar fritters ($4). How about the crispy shrimp wontons with sweet chili and lime dip ($5.25) or the stir fried chicken with mango and cashew nuts ($4)? Two fairly hungry people can expect to pack away three dishes.
For fresh-food types there’s lentil-and-roast-vegetable salad with goat’s cheese, tossed with Dijon vinaigrette ($4). Try the breaded fish burger with tartar sauce ($6.75). For the heartily hungry there is the 200g prime buffalo steak with all the trimmings ($15). If it’s too early for a frozen daiquiri, order a custard apple and coconut smoothie ($3).
The t-shirt clad wait staff are never far away. Face on it’s difficult to tell who’s who, but when they turn around the categories are ‘student’ or ‘teacher’. Fifteen-year-olds who want to work in the restaurant industry start off at the canteen out back, where the kids-in-residence are fed. There they learn basic kitchen skills and the importance of hygiene. The next rung up the ladder is to progress to Romdeng’s, a sister operation that serves Khmer food. Graduates move on to the international level at Friends. And by the time they get there, they have the necessary F&B industry skills in place. Foreigners who whine about the lack of service in Cambodia need to eat at Friends.
The young people working at Friends are part of Mith Samlanh, an organisation that works with former street children and marginalised youth. Offering food, clothing, shelter, education and medical treatment to more than 1,500 homeless children is no easy task. The kids in the programme range from newborn babies to 24-year-olds. In the early days, informal education is central. When they start school, students are outfitted with uniforms, bags and books. At 15 they have the option to pursue vocational training in cooking, welding, hairdressing, mechanics or electricity.
After your meal, stroll over to Friends ‘N’ Stuff next door. Shop for gifts made from recycled materials by the students’ families. Purchases help support the people who most need it, so buy generously and consider getting a manicure from the young trainees. Everywhere, there are smiles – which might explain why Mith Samlanh was voted one of the top 100 NGOs in 2013. To do your bit, eat there often and take plenty of your own friends along with you.
Friends, #215 Street 13 (near the National Museum).
Crazy costumes, thrown sweets, interactive scenes and comedy cross-dressing. What more could you possibly wish for? Pantomime, at least in the UK, is as big a part of the Christmas tradition as turkey, tinsel and leaving out a tumbler of something potent for Santa. For the past decade the Phnom Penh Players have been bringing this seasonal English spectacle to Cambodia’s capital. This year’s incarnation, The Epic Pantomime, features Greek gods, an overconfident hero and at least one very questionable accent. The Advisor cornered a few of the show’s stars to talk flying shoes, fourth walls and how to properly pronounce the word ‘hag’.
Why don’t you start by introducing yourselves?
Hades: I am Hades, the God of Chaos and Strife.
Athena: Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Heroes.
Kendall: Zak Kendall, Pantomania’s greatest historian.
Le Rogue: I…
Just a minute. Zak, you mentioned Pantomania. What can you tell us about the place?
Kendall: I thought you would never ask. The United Kingdoms of Pantomania are a group of kingdoms that share borders. Previously I have helped to detail the histories of several of Pantomania’s other kingdoms, but this is the first year that we have visited the coastal kingdom of Greece. I have a map if you would care to look.
A lot of areas on this map seem to be covered in question marks…
Kendall: Look, I’m a historian, writing about a pretend country. The UN isn’t exactly bending over backwards to fund my work. It’s a one-step-at-a-time thing. Research is necessary; I can’t just jump around mapping everything. Some of these kingdoms don’t even have air-con, and don’t even get me started on A’Labia – you can’t even get a drink there!
I’m sorry. I’m sure your work is a lot harder than we could ever imagine.
Kendall: It is actually quite easy, but thanks for the sentiment.
Le Rogue: AHEM!
Oh, of course! Sorry I interrupted you before. Could you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Le Rogue: Le Row.
The Roo?
Le Rogue: No, no, no. LE ROW!
Kendall: Pay no attention to him. He’s just a sidekick.
Le Rogue: Oh, le no! ‘Sidekick’ is such a demeaning term. I prefer ‘the hero of less authority’.
Noted. What’s with the chains?
Le Rogue: Just a small misunderstanding involving a local magistrate’s wife.
And you, your Excellency?
Perseus: Prince Perseus, the most decorated general of Greece.
Yes, I couldn’t help but notice your medals. If my eyes don’t deceive me, that round one there is actually for tying shoelaces.
Perseus: Thank you for noticing, citizen. I’m afraid they are not as polished as they could be. It’s so difficult to find good help in the kingdom these days.
Well, now that we’ve all met, I’m interested in this ‘fourth wall’ you mention. Can one of you explain?
Kendall: The fourth wall is what one imagines in their head when they are standing on the stage. It is an invisible barrier between the audience and the people on stage. In a pantomime it is traditional for the characters to actually address the audience; it is an artistic tool that is paramount, but not necessarily exclusive to a pantomime.
Hades: Oh, please. Someone shut him up! Three months of rehearsals and he just continues to get on my nerves. He is worse than Joe, Kate and Abigail combined.
Time for a change of topic, methinks. How about the title? ‘Epic’ is a term people seem to throw around a lot lately. What exactly is it that makes your pantomime so epic?
Le Rogue: Well…
Hades: She’s not talking to you, fool!
Kendall: By definition, an epic involves a hero on a cyclical journey or quest. The hero faces temptations and adversaries and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. Generally the hero learns or discovers something about himself that he didn’t realise before. An epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by society.
Hades: Blah, blah, blah! Listen to him! The guy sells one bloody story and suddenly he’s some sort of literati.
Kendall: Some of the greatest examples would be Gilgamesh, the Odyssey, or Beowulf… but I can see by your blank expression that you have no idea what I’m talking about. Very well, it’s a little bit like the original Star Wars trilogy, although I promise you there are minimal Star Wars references.
Got it. So it’s a hero’s journey?
Kendall: Is English your first language?
And the hero in this case would be you, correct?
Perseus: Oh, I’m sorry. Were you talking to me? What publication are you with again? Time? Rolling Stone? Heroes Monthly?
[Sigh] The Advisor.
Perseus: Oh, The Advisor. Of course. That Jehovah’s Witness magazine. I’m sorry, but I don’t give interviews to people who just randomly show up and knock on the palace door.
Athena: That’s The Watchtower. You’ll have to forgive him. He has a tendency to be a little self-centred. It’s something we’re working on.
If we’re working off the Star Wars model, then I would assume there’s some sort of mentor/Obiwan Kenobi type figure?
Athena: That would be me. It’s my job to help mould Perseus into the kind of hero that the kingdom of Greece needs. A true hero does not simply go around sticking his sword into any old thing. A true hero must recognise the needs of others and must put the betterment of his fellow man before himself. You may have noticed that currently Perseus is a little lacking in the humility department and that he overcompensates in the vanity department.
Perseus: Oooooh, are we talking about me again?
Hades: Just keep combing your hair, prince.
Athena: As the Goddess of Heroes, my mandate is to set Perseus along the correct path. I am the first of four gods to endow him with the tools and wisdom he needs to succeed.
Kendall: When she says ‘tools’, she means magic weapons.
Four gods? Is that a reference to the four ghosts in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol?
Kendall: Well, well, well. Apparently you are not as stupid as you look.
[COUGH!] You mentioned magic weapons. Like what?
Athena: There is a magic shield, a magic sword, two pairs of flying shoes and, of course…
Le Rogue: Flying shoes? Hah!
Kendall: Says the guy who cried like a baby when he fell three feet from a suspension wire.
Le Rogue: Three feet? Le no! It was at least one metre – and my shoulder is still sore.
Kendall: Three feet IS a…
Le Rogue: Please, monsieur. Your ancient system of measurement gives me a headache.
OK, enough about the shoes. What of the other weapons?
Athena: There is the sword of songs and a shield of visibility.
Visibility?
Athena: Yes, it is the second most powerful item of visibility in the Kingdom of Pantomania.
A shield of visibility? Second most powerful item? I’m afraid that comment can’t go without further comment.
Athena: It…
Hades: Mind your words!
Kendall: I concur. Those thieves at 20th Century Fox already tried to cash in by stealing our title with Epic 3D and my lawyers have advised us not to comment.
OK, let’s move on. Again. You mentioned adversaries. Who? [Silence] Don’t everyone jump in at once…
Le Rogue: Oh, can I speak? [Looks around table, hesitantly] Well, there is a temptress, three blind witches, a dragon of the sea…
A dragon of the sea?
Le Rogue: Le oui, a dragon that lives in l’eau salée. Parlez-vous anglais?
Nous pourrions parler en français si vous préférez.
Le Rogue: I have no idea what you just said to me, but dragon, yes. And the three witches. I know nothing of their magic, but three single women gathered in the same location always make me a bit nervous.
Athena: You can see why he’s the sidekick.
Le Rogue: Excuse moi?
Athena: Forgive me. I meant ‘the hero of less authority’.
‘Temptress.’ Now she sounds interesting.
Le Rogue: I do not wish to speak of this. It was a very traumatic experience for moi. Even more traumatic than the time I spent in prison, before I was repatriated to Pantomania. By the way if your audience would like to read some of my beat poetry about my time in prison they can visit my website www.rightfullyconvicted.com. I also frequently perform anywhere that appreciates a criminal and do so in a singlet so that everyone can see my amazing collection of tattoos.
So would you say this temptress is the main antagonist in the show?
Le Rogue: Pardon moi. An-ta-go-nist? I am sorry, I do not speak Latin.
Kendall: He means ‘the villain’.
Le Rogue: Oh, of course – and oh, le no! The temptress is not the biggest challenge. That would be the ’ag known as Medusa.
Kendall: He means ‘hag’.
Le Rogue: This is what I said, no? ’ag.
An ’ag? What exactly is that?
Kendall: Like a witch, but super upgrade.
So this super upgrade witch, Medusa, would be the villain then?
Hades: Shades no! Are you blind? Do you think I’m sitting here in these dark robes because I’m a member of the chorus? I am the villain! I intend to spin the Kingdom of Greece into a downward spiral and plunge all of Pantomania into chaos!
Athena: And how has that been working out for you so far?Hades: Admittedly it has not been going very well in rehearsals, but the weather changes every day. Mortals crave chaos; the people of Greece, the people of all of Pantomania do not know how to live in peace. They want violence, they want tyranny. They are all fairytale characters, after all.
Fairytales do have a tendency to end happily, however.
Hades: Are you unaware of the law of averages? At some point the tables are bound to turn!
Athena: Keep telling yourself that.
Hades: And you keep hedging your bets on that little prince and we will see who wins in the end.
As much as all this bickering puts me in the Christmas spirit, I’m afraid we need to wrap this up. In closing, is there anything left you’d like to say to our readers?
Athena: It is a lovely pantomime and it has a unique setting, but it’s a pantomime in the most traditional sense: teaching good moral lessons and there is comedy for children and adults alike.
Hades: I am not just a villain. I am the GOD of Villains – and I expect a good crowd of people ready to ‘BOOOOOO!’ me!
Le Rogue: I hope that you will come and see the greatest hero of less authority that the Kingdom of Pantomania has ever known. Also, I am a bit short on cash at the moment, so perhaps after the show, if you buy me a drink, I will make it worth your while. [Wink, wink]
Kendall: We have a hero, a damsel, a villain, a king, a thief, several Gods, three witches, three greasers, a mythological hag, a cafe worker, a singing contest, a sea dragon, and a kitchen sink. If that doesn’t say ‘family Christmas’, I don’t know what does.
Perseus, anything you’d like to add?
Perseus: Maths isn’t my strong suit…
Athena: To the interview about the pantomime, you idiot.
Perseus: Oh, you mean MY pantomime. IT IS EPIC!
WHO: The Phnom Penh Players
WHAT: The Epic Pantomime
WHERE: Russian Cultural Centre, corner of Norodom Blvd. and St. 222 (tickets available at The Willow Boutique Hotel, Divine Pizza & Ribs, and The Flicks)
WHEN: 7:30pm December 6 and 2pm and 7:30pm December 7
WHY: It’s EPIC!
SATURDAY 30 | Sometimes, the word ‘Epic’ simply isn’t big enough to cover it. Such is the case with our – yes, The Advisor’s – Best Of Phnom Penh 2013 Street Party. Six bands (including very special, top secret, we-could-tell-you-but-then-we’d-have-to-kill-you special guest stars), four DJs, live tattooing, street-side nonsense and more boozin’ and schmoozin’ than surely even Bacchus himself could handle. The carnage starts at 3pm and is threatening to last all night. You Have Been Warned (and so have the local authorities). Block parties were never this good. Be there and bring everyone you’ve ever met – or we’ll hunt you down and maim you for life!
WHO: YOU!
WHAT: The Advisor’s Best of Phnom Penh 2013 Street Party
WHERE: Slur Bar, Street 172 & 51
WHEN: 3pm November 30
WHY: “Or we’ll hunt you down and maim you for life!” – The Editor
FRIDAY 29 | In the shtetl (‘villages’ or ‘ghettoes’) of Eastern Europe, itinerant Jewish troubadours once roamed, expressing through klezmer music the full gamut of human emotions from joy to despair, from devotion to revolt, from meditation to drunkenness – all served up with a generous dose of Yiddish humour. Inspired by secular melodies, populasr dances, and the wordless melodies used by orthodox Jews for approaching God in ecstatic communion, klezmer’s evolution was spurred by contact with Slavic, Greek, Ottoman, gypsy and, later, jazz musicians. Using typical scales, tempo and rhythm changes, slight dissonance and a touch of improvisation, today’s klezmorim include Sam Day, a young mandolin player from the US who, before returning home, was instrumental in founding the Klezbodians. The band features Bun Hong on clarinet, Giacomo Butte on accordion, Timothy Walker on guitar and Ali Benderdouche on dumbek. Sam, back in the US with his magnificently named Shtetlblasters, says: “There’s something danceable about klezmer music. There’s a very clear rhythm; it’s driving, propulsive music. And the scales used are sort of major and minor at the same time, so there’s something melancholy about it. It’s very vocal, too; the melodies are played on the clarinet or violin in ways that attempt to emulate the human voice, the sound of a cantor – in a synagogue, the person who’s singing the Jewish prayers…” [Erupts in song] And what can we expect of the Klezbodians? “Mostly fast-paced klezmer instrumental music – similar to gypsy music – along with some Yiddish vocal tunes. It will be feisty!”
WHO: Klezbodians
WHAT: Itinerant Jewish troubadours
WHERE: Doors, Street 84 & 47
WHEN: 9:30pm November 29
WHY: “It will be feisty!” – Sam Day Harmet
FRIDAY 29 | New wave, post-punk, ’80s cheese: all grist to the mill for the inimitable Jaworski 7, fronted by the larger-than-life Jerby Santo. “The band loves post punk, indie, new wave and everything in between,” he says. “We’re like a Pacific/Oceania band. We now have two originals on our set and we’re planning to add more.” Think The Cure, The Smiths and brace yourself for a fist-pumping, high-jumping flashback to your formative years.
WHO: Jaworski 7
WHAT: New wave, post-punk and ’80s cheese
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN: 9pm November 29
WHY: A fist-pumping, high-jumping flashback to your formative years
THURSDAY 28 | When Typhoon Haiyan tore through the Philippines, battering the archipelago with wind speeds nearing 200 miles per hour, the devastating storm surge left an apocalyptic wasteland in its wake. At least 3,974 people were killed and a further 1,186 remain missing, with about 500,000 now homeless, according to the latest official figures. On November 28, in a citywide show of solidarity, one of the capital’s most loved Filipino musicians – touched personally by the tragedy – will host a benefit concert to raise much-needed funds for survivors. “We were all worried and deeply wounded,” says Jerby Santo, lead singer of Jaworski 7 and Dancing With The Indios. “The most devastated city, Tacloban, was where I went to college and established my career just before coming here to Phnom Penh. I left a really interesting city and was looking forward to seeing it again then the storm hit it. I spent sleepless nights thinking about my family and friends because I could not contact them and the images on the news networks and social media compounded my situation. Thankfully they survived the storm, but some of my friends did not make it. Two musicians from our scene both got engulfed in the storm surge, promising young musicians… snapped out in a flick, just like that.” Entry for the concert will be $5, “but we encourage people to give more because $5 won’t buy a single corrugated iron sheet. The goal is to be able to buy corrugated sheets and other building materials for my town, Dulag, where 98% of homes were destroyed.”
WHO : Vibratone, Moi Tiet, Adobo Conspiracy, Dancing With The Indios
WHAT : Typhoon Haiyan benefit concert
WHERE: Equinox, #3a Street 278
WHEN : 9pm November 28
WHY : Show some love for our Filipino friends and help rebuild a shattered nation
In his new exhibition Ratanakiri, photographer Pha Lina blends art, portraiture and political statement to illuminate the vanishing fortunes of hill tribes in the northwest.
In one of the most arresting images, an unsmiling Khmer Loeu man with a jungle stogie poses among the charred remains of a burned-out forest. He holds a sturdy homemade crossbow in one arm and cradles a child-sized monkey in the other. Metres of yellow measuring tape – the kind ubiquitous in garment factories – entangle the trio like spaghetti.
The faces and scenery change in Pha Lina’s other portraits but the tape remains, a suffocating spider web of foreign numbers and vague symbolism. If the exact nature of the metaphor is elusive, its tenor is not.
Ratanakiri is one of more than two dozen exhibitions that comprise the Photo Phnom Penh festival, which opens November 30 and runs through the end of the year.
Currated by world-renowned photographer and picture editor Christian Caujolle, the festival’s intent has always been to make photography accessible to everyday people (Caujolle began his career as a photo critic working for Jean-Paul Sarte at Liberation in the late 1970s; he later founded the award-winning Agence VU photo agency). As Caujolle has explained in the past, that means getting images out of the galleries and into the streets.
The festival will hold eight outdoor exhibits in six locations this year. The venues include the French Embassy, Sisowath Quay, Wat Phnom, the Delegation of the European Union, Central Market and Wat Botum.
“We have not chosen a central theme,” writes Caujolle in the festival’s guide. “But, as sometimes happens, a central idea emerges, one which corresponds to a necessity of the present moment. It designs itself: it may concern the exploration of the city, the heritage that has been conserved, the notion of ruin, the obvious conflicts or contradictions which are apparent in the exploitation of the city and its memories.”
If there is a concept that embodies 2013’s exhibition list, it is one of cultural change and reflection.
In Dialogue & Demolition, Chinese artist and iconoclast Zhang Dali carves his profile into the walls of buildings slated for demolition. The display serves as a small act of defiance against China’s moneyed interests and their culturally dismissive march toward development. “These destructions,” he says, “will make future generations lose their cultural memory and they cannot be exchanged for money.”
In North Korea, Swiss photographer Adrien Golinelli takes viewers on a guided tour of the pariah state. In colourful scenes of propaganda and contrived faces of normality, we view glimpses of the veil that hides a nation in peril. “I’ve used what they showed me to show what they tried to hide from me,” Golinelli explains.
As usual, the festival introduces us to a new class of local shutterbugs. Chuon Nyra explores concepts of time back when the country had no clocks, watches or hand phones. Vong Sopheak, a painter and photographer, takes an introspective look at the working life of the painter. Sun Vanndy tags along with the child jasmine sellers who work the city’s crossroads.
The veterans are there too: Mak Remissa, Sovan Philong, Pha Lina.
The festival kicks off with a flurry of activity during opening week. On opening weekend, a cavalcade of free tuk tuks will ferry festivalgoers across the city, touring the indoor exhibits on Saturday and the outdoor ones on Sunday. The Sunday tour finishes with a group screening at the old Catholic church. Tours leave from the French Institute at 2pm both days.
A screening on December 2 at the Royal University of Phnom Penh will include live music by the Phare Ponleu Selpak band. At the opening-week finale on December 4, screenings will include a compendium of pictures from five years of Studio Images, the French Institute’s photography training programme headed by Christian Caujolle.
HIGHLIGHTS
Micheline Dullin, Cambodge
Sisowath Quay
French photographer Micheline Dullin worked in Cambodia from 1958 until 1964. For a while she was Norodom Sihanouk’s official photographer and the job allowed her access to places few others could visit. Her images include aerial shots of Phnom Penh, Olympic Stadium under construction and captivating portraits of faces from the past.
Gabriel Veyre, Indochine & Angkor
Bophana Centre, #64 Street 200
On assignment in 1899 for Paul Doumer, the governor of Indochina, Gabriel Veyre spent a year travelling and photographing Indochina, including long stints at Angkor Wat, for an exhibition at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1900.
Adrien Golinelli, North Korea
Royal University of Phnom Penh, Russian Federation Boulevard
Swiss photographer Adrien Golinelli visited North Korea in 2012 with an official tourist group. The country he reveals is both contrived and authentic with hints of real life hidden in state-approved scenery.
Foreign Familiar
Royal University of Fine Arts, Street 178
Foreign Familiar comprises the work of nine photographers, all long-term expatriates based in Asia. Their perceptions of their environment, says the festival guide, are ‘neither naïve, as a newcomer might be, or blasé, as might be that of someone who was born in these countries’.
Toy Monireth, Colour of Silk
Plantation Hotel, Street 184
Toy Monireth’s Colour Of Silk series captures silk up close. It revels in its colours, textures and patterns. “Every colour and every fabric fibre is like a community, like a human being, with its different properties,” he says. “And one has to find a good way to bring all together.” Toy Monireth does so with exceptional beauty.
Lim Mengkong, Pre-Wedding
Java Café, #56 Sihanouk Boulevard
In Pre-Wedding, Cambodian photographer Lim Mengkong revisits a genre of photography notorious for its kitsch. Romantic yet fun and quirky, Lim uses unconventional props and locations to capture couples in less ordinary poses. In doing so, he provokes us to re-evaluate traditional views of what love should look like.
Mak Remissa, Flamed Forest
Wat Botum, Street 7
Among the country’s greatest artistic photographers, Mak Remissa continues to explore environmental themes. This time, he juxtaposes forest life with fire, a metaphor for man’s ongoing destruction of nature.
Maika Elan, The Pink Choice
Romeet Gallery, Street 178
In The Pink Choice, Vietnamese photographer Maika Elan explores homosexuality in Vietnam. She attempts to break through stereotypes by documenting couples from all social classes in typical yet intimate scenes.
WHO: The curious
WHAT: Photo Phnom Penh
WHEN: November 30 – December 31
WHERE: Across Phnom Penh
WHY: Shutterbugs doing what they do best
WEDNESDAY 27 | The end, when it finally came, was as unforeseeable as it was barbaric. Foxy Lady, a 28ft traditional Malaysian perahu bedar, was just a few months into what was meant to be the trip of a lifetime. From Darwin harbour on Australia’s rugged northern coast, the tiny yacht had nosed her way through the crystalline waters of the Pacific Ocean, past Timor and Flores, then on to Bali and Singapore, before heading up the Straits of Malacca and around the tip of the Malaysian peninsula. On board, a trio of tanned young adventurers passed for captain and crew. Kerry Hamill was 27 when he wrote his last journal entry from Foxy Lady in August 1978. The eldest son of a tight-knit New Zealand family, he – along with fellow travellers Stuart Glass, a Canadian, and John Dewhirst from England – would within weeks join the handful of foreigners executed by the Khmer Rouge. At the time, few people outside Cambodia knew of the atrocities being committed within. Before Foxy Lady’s course was forever altered, Kerry had sent countless letters back home, regaling his family with breathless tales. Suddenly, the letters stopped. The silence was deafening. It would be a further 18 months before the Hamills finally discovered what awful fate had befallen their son. Thirty-one years later, on the same day Kerry’s yacht had first strayed into Cambodian waters, his little brother Rob – an Olympic and Trans-Atlantic rowing champion – arrived in Phnom Penh to confront Kerry’s killers at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. At the same time, he agreed to the filming of Brother Number One, an award-winning documentary by Annie Goldson, James Bellamy and Peter Gilbert that follows Rob as he retraces Kerry’s final steps. Along the way he visits Tuol Sleng, where his brother was tortured; meets three S-21 survivors, and penetrates a Khmer Rouge stronghold to find the Navy officer in charge when Kerry’s yacht was attacked. The resulting film is “the story of an innocent man brought to his knees and killed in the prime of his life, and the impact his death had on just one family”.
WHO: Rob Hamill]
WHAT: Brother Number One screening
WHERE: Meta House, Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: 8:30pm November 27
WHY: The ghost of the Khmer Rouge confronted
