CAMBODIA/ FRANCE/ GERMANY/ Thailand/ Qatar
2016 – 1H41 – IN KHMER
WORLD PREMIERE
Synopsis
Bora, an 18-year-old, leaves his village to work on the construction sites of Diamond Island, a project for an ultra-modern paradise for the rich and a symbol of tomorrow’s Cambodia. He befriends his fellow workers and finds his elder brother, the charismatic Solei, who went missing five years earlier. Solei introduces him into an exciting world, that of an urban and wealthy youth, its girls, nights and illusions.
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DIRECTOR: Davy Chou
PRODUCTION: Charlotte Vincent
SCENARIO: Davy Chou - Claire Maugendre
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Thomas Favel
EDITING: Laurent Leveneur
SOUND: Vincent Villa
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Samnang Pak
MUSIC: Jérémie Arcache - Christophe Musset
CAST:
Sobon Nuon
Cheanick Nov
Madeza Chhem
Mean Korn
Samnang Nut
Sophyna Meng
Jany Min
Samnang Khim
Batham Oun
PRODUCTION
Aurora Films
Charlotte Vincent
Tel. +33 (0)1 47 70 43 01
contact@aurorafilms.fr
CO-PRODUCTION
ANTI-ACHIVE
Davy Chou
Tel. +855 012958955
info@antiarchive.com
VYCKY FILMS
Sylvain Decouvelaere
Tél: +33 (0)6 64 69 79 45
contact@vyckyfilms.com
VANDERTASTIC
Hanneke Van der Tas
Tel. +49 30 34 66 83 77
info@vandertastic.com
KNM
Michel Merkt
GARIDI FILMS
Consuelo Frauenfelder
contact@garidifilms.ch
185 FILMS
Soros Soukhum
Tel. +662 691 6770
bbunghim@yahoo.com
VS SERVICE
ARTE FRANCE CINEMA
Olivier Père
Tel. +33 (0)1 55 00 77 77
DISTRIBUTION
LES FILMS DU LOSANGE
Régine Vial
Tel. +33 (0)1 44 43 87 10
r.vial@filmsduLosange.fr
SALES
LES FILMS DU LOSANGE
Bérénice Vincent
Tel. +33 (0)6 63 74 69 10
b.vincent@filmsdulosange.fr
FRENCH PRESS
MAKNA PRESSE
Chloé Lorenzi
Tel. +33 (0)1 42 77 00 16
chloe@makna-presse.com
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
THE PR FACTORY
Barbara Van Lombeek
Tel. +32 486 54 64 80
Tel. +33 (0)6 45 07 41 54
barbara@theprfactory.com
CONTACT CANNES
LES FILMS DU LOSANGE
Bérénice Vincent
Tel. +33 (0)6 63 74 69 10
b.vincent@filmsdulosange.fr
After the documentary Golden Slumbers, where he tried to retrace the popular Cambodian cinema which disappeared during the Khmer Rouge dictatorship, Diamond Island is Davy Chou’s first fiction. After the ghosts of the past, he films the lures of the present.
"When I discovered Diamond Island in 2013, I immediately wished to make a film there, which gave my short film Cambodia 2099, a draft for Diamond Island. It is a huge real-estate project, a small city made up of modern and fancy buildings on a peninsula near Phnom Penh. It crystallises the high-speed development prevailing in Cambodia. What struck me, besides the kitschy architecture, was to see the hundreds of youngsters roaming at night, going around on their motorbikes in this unfinished site. They are excited to see the country’s rebirth; they look at the future with zest and innocence. They are between 17 and 25, uprooted from the countryside to lend a working hand and build the Cambodia of the future, which will anyway be too expensive for them.
Diamond Island is a very simple coming of age film, leaning on the teen-movie codes: flirting, gangs. It is a film about distances: that between boys and girls, between the lower and the upper world, between the hopes of the deluded youth and the realities of the country. I wanted to convey the brutal reality with warmth and generosity. The direction is perfectly tuned on the feelings of my characters. Without fearing heterogeneity, colours, mannerism.
All the actors are amateurs - the one playing Bora is a taxi driver. I spent four months wandering around in the streets of Phnom Penh in order to find them, also on Diamond Island and on Facebook. Giving them my trust and winning theirs in return was one on the best experiences connected to the film."
Interview by Nicolas Schaller
