The Last Reel (2014):
Synopsis
Sophoun, the rebellious daughter of
a hard-line army Colonel, lives her
life for the moment, hanging out with
a local gang. But when her father
returns home with another arranged
marriage proposal, Sophoun flees her
imploding home and seeks refuge in a
derelict cinema. There, she is shocked
to discover an incomplete 1970s
melodrama from pre Khmer Rouge
times, a film which starred her now
desperately ill mother as a glamorous
young woman. A story from a different
world, a different time.
With the help of the cinema’s elderly
projectionist, Sophoun re-makes the
missing last reel of the film, reprising
her mother’s role.
By premiering the
completed film forty years later, she
hopes to remind her mother of a life
she’d once lived, and to mend the
psychological scars that still haunt her.
The old film, however, poses more
questions than it answers. The promise
of the Cambodian film industry and
its newest star was cut short in 1975
by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime
which specifically targeted actors and
filmmakers as enemies of the people.
Remaking the movie offers Sophoun an
opportunity to dictate her own destiny
but at the cost of uncovering some
painful truths about her family and
their past.
Production Stills:
The Princess
The Projectionist
The Prince
Sophoun
The Camp
