Directed by Enrique Sánchez Lansch • Documentary • 2024 • 101 minutes
Chea Samy was a renowned soloist in Cambodia’s royal dance ensemble in the 1930s—and Pol Pot’s foster mother. After marrying his older brother, she raised him as her own until he vanished into the underground. In 1975, like millions of Cambodians, she was forced into labor, only realizing years later that the boy she raised was the Khmer Rouge leader. One of the few dancers to survive, she returned to Phnom Penh to teach, preserving traditional dance. Her student, Sophiline Cheam, now a successful choreographer, explores Cambodia’s past, including Pol Pot’s little-known connection to classical dance.
Up Next in Dance (& dancers)
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Gallant Indies
Directed by Philippe Béziat • Documentary • 2022 • 109 minutes
Based on Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet that was directed by Clément Cogitore for the Opéra National de Paris.
In 2019, eight opera singers and 30 dancers from a wide variety of artistic and demographic backgrounds convened at ...
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Pendular
Directed by Julia Murat • Drama • With Raquel Karro; Rodrigo Bolzan • 2017 • 105 minutes
A young couple settles down in a large abandoned industrial warehouse. An orange strip, glued to the floor, partitions the area in two equal portions: to the right, his sculpture atelier; to the left, her da...
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Monkey Dance
Directed by Julie Mallozzi • Documentary • 2004 • 65 minutes
Three Cambodian-American teenagers come of age in a world shadowed by their parents' Khmer Rouge nightmares. Traditional Cambodian dance links them to their parents’ culture, but fast cars, hip consumerism, and new romance pull harder....
