Filming wraps in a few days in Cambodia on the international co-production Om-Tuk which Australian writer/directors Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Michael Cody are producing alongside Phnom Penh-based Kulikar Sotho.
Sotho is also gearing up to direct her first feature, The Last Reel, written and produced by the UK’s Ian Masters. She co-owns Hanuman Films, a service company that first worked on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and most recently on the Australian drama Wish You Were Here.
Om-Tuk
is being filmed in the Khmer language and focuses on two young
Cambodians who are not accepted by society and find it difficult to
trust anyone because of the trauma they have experienced.
The film
will combine elements of a love story, a road movie and a crime drama –
and it has a metaphysical edge. Courtin-Wilson and Cody spent three
months late last year researching, writing and filming in Cambodia,
coming up with two potential projects.
“The idea was to fold real
stories into the fiction-writing process,” Cody told Screendaily, adding
that it was a similar methodology as the one used for Hail,
the previous film directed by Courtin-Wilson. “We got a lot of great
material and detail and this has given the film a lot of authenticity.”
After editing and further working on the script of Om-Tuk
back in Australia, the pair returned to Cambodia in early January for
the rest of the filming. The government agencies Screen Australia and
ScreenNSW, and a private investor, are supporting the project.
Cody formed a bond with Cambodia a decade ago when he reported on the country for ABC TV. He has returned many times since.
The Last Reel
will tell a universal story of contemporary inter-generational conflict
but also looks back at Cambodia’s painful past, namely the genocide and
brutality of the 1970s. Sotho said about 60% of the budget was in
place.
“It is a story about the overwhelming human need for
stories and storytelling as part of a healing process,” says Sotho. “If
having watched our film, young people in Cambodia are inspired to talk
to their parents about the past, and vice-versa, I believe that the film
will have contributed to this healing process … There would be no
greater reward for me than to inspire the next generation of Cambodians
to become filmmakers.”
Sotho said the film also sends the message that women should not be frowned upon for being independent in thought and action.
The Khmer Rouge Tribunal is currently examining in Cambodia.
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