La terre des âmes errantes (The Land of Wandering Souls). 1999. France. Directed by Rithy Panh. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 100 min.
William Blake’s proverb from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–93), “Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead,” is an apt way to describe Cambodia’s Killing Fields. As poor migrant workers and rice farmers dig trenches to lay down a fiber optic cable for the French telecom giant Acatel, ostensibly to connect Cambodia with the rest of Asia and Europe—“It’s for the Internet,” says one peasant; “I don’t even have electricity,” another dryly responds—they unearth undetonated landmines and the bones of victims of the Khmer Rouge. The past cannot be escaped, even in a Southeast Asia that promises future prosperity through technological advancements and historical amnesia. Courtesy INA