Cambodia has submitted Chhay Bora’s Lost Loves
to the best foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards,
marking the first time in 18 years that the country has sent a film to
the Oscars.
The Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee (COSC) voted
unanimously for the historical drama, which follows the experiences of a
middle-class woman during Pol Pot’s genocidal regime.
Chhay Bora
and his wife Kauv Sotheary, who are both university professors, used 15
years of personal savings to finance the film, one of the first
historical dramas made by Cambodians about life during the Khmer Rouge
regime.
Bora directed and produced while his wife plays the
leading role. She is the surviving daughter of Leave Sila, the woman
whose story forms the basis of the film.
The film was released in
Cambodia on January 6 and, due to demand, screened consecutively for 42
days. It then continued to play on a weekend basis until April 2012.
“This
event is historic for Cambodia’s reviving film industry,” said COSC
chairman Mariam Arthur. “The only other film submitted by Cambodia for
Oscar consideration was Rithy Panh’s The Rice People in 1994.”
The COSC was granted approval by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in October 2011.
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