Saturday, December 19, 2009

SSBD didn't stir me

The two stars of SSBD, David Kross and Apinya, alongwith director Detlev Buck on stage before tonight's screening
Tonight was the Cambodian premiere of the movie Same Same But Different, which would've been fine if it started on time, at 7pm, and we hadn't had to sit through nearly 90 minutes of pre-film twittering from director, producer, numerous cinema people and my cat before the picture started. It was a full house and I managed to watch about forty minutes of it before I had to leave for another appointment. I wasn't impressed at all with what I saw. A bagful of cliches including rocket launcher and cow, before backpacker meets hooker, girl has HIV and boy decides to stick by her. That just about sums it up and despite a lot being made of the German-meets-Cambodian connection, it won't make my 'must buy' list. Considering the film is shot entirely on location in Cambodia, the fact that the main actress is Thai is a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Prior to the screening, I popped into Le Lezard Bleu on St 240 to catch the Ancient Pagodas of Battambang painting exhibition before it closes at the end of the month. There's nearly 30 paintings by two artists, Long Kosal & Leurm Lorn, both out of the Phare Ponleu Selpak organization that is creating quite a buzz in Battambang and beyond for their artistic creativity. The paintings were damn good and sell for around $200 apiece.
The pagoda of Wat Kandal in Battambang province
One of the walls at Le Lezard Bleu with the paintings on display

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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Gone but not forgotten

The folks at Phare Ponleu Selpak (PPS) in Battambang are busting a gut to get their name and their wide range of activities known throughout Cambodia and elsewhere. The thriving artistic community that makes up the PPS organization, and which provides schooling to hundreds of children in Cambodia's northwest city, are perhaps better known for their circus performances and have been in the capital this week, with a couple of shows. One of the PPS future exhibitions that caught my eye will take place at Le Lezard bleu cafe on St 240 from Friday 11 December (5pm) and will remain on display for the rest of the month. Ancient pagodas of Battambang Province is the title of the exhibition, which showcases the talents of artists Long Kosal and Leurm Lorn, who have captured, on canvas, some of the most remarkable examples of these older wats which populate their province of Battambang. There is a saying in Cambodia that new is better than old and that is applied across the board, often at the expense of beautiful ornate structures such as pagodas. This exhibition will give us a chance to see these wats before they disappear forever. Find out more at the PPS website. Interesting fact of the day: Across Cambodia there are 4,307 pagodas with 55,000 monks in attendance.
One of the Battambang pagodas that could soon disappear

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