Rithy Panh 

Camb/Fra/Bel

Une soir apresla guerre (One Evening After the War), produced by Rice People's JBA Productions, is a story about the survivors of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime, which savaged the country throughout the 70s and 80s. The story focuses on a man who, despite the horrors of war, still has a passion for life, and a former bargirl who feels so humiliated she wants to die.

Savannah is a 28-year-old former Government soldier who has spent four years fighting the Khmer Rouge. Savannah represents a whole generation whose families have been decimated by a political phenomenon they cannot understand. Returning to Pnohm Pehn, Savannah meets a young bar girl, Srey Poeuv, and a romance develops.

Shooting took place, bravely, in and around the Cambodian capital. Aside from the very real dangers of life in Pnohm Pehn, crew and cast had to cope with problems like lack of power and infrastructure, and the lack of any kind of support facilities. Panh himself brings his own memories of Pol Pot's notorious regime to the movie, having fled Pnohm Pehn for France when the Khmer Rouge entered the city. His two documentaries, Site 2 (1989) and Cambodia: Between War and Peace (1991), focused on the victims of the tragic revolution. "War makes people go mad and destroys their solidarity," says Panh.

Une soir apresla guerre should benefit from some topicality: the infamous Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who had been sidelined by his followers, recently died and Cambodia itself is in a state of political flux. There is currently a violent  internal power struggle between the former Vietnamese-backed Prime Minister, Hun Sen, and his political rival, a son of the King. There are also strong signs that the remnants of the Khmer Rouge are ready to give up the conflict in return for political amnesty. Panh's take on the situation will be interesting, to say the least. Richard James Havis