Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise (2007)

Director:

Rithy Panh

Writer:

Rithy Panh (writer)

Release Date:

31 March 2007 (France)

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

2 wins

Also Known As:

Paper Cannot Wrap Ember (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:90 min

Country:

France

Language:

Khmer

Color:

Color

Company:

Catherine Dussart Productions (CDP)

Important social insights hampered by cinematography

I recently viewed this film at the Bangkok film festival. In praise, I must first say that this film does not shy away from the terrible tragedies that poor women endure all over the world. It gives the audience a look at a situation that we would probably prefer to ignore. The problem with the film is that it gets in its own way. It is true that the film is remarkable as a documentary for its lack of voice over or direct interaction with the film crew. However, hiding the crew seemed so false to me that I was quite distracted from the women that were being documented. It seems like the women were heavily prompted to ask one another revealing questions. Some of their conversations seemed genuine whereas others seemed hopelessly staged. They also tended to be seated or otherwise arranged in very tasteful and not necessarily natural positioning. The staged feeling would have actually been lessened if the documenters were present- tacitly admitting that their presence did alter the view of reality. As is, much of the film rings as disturbingly false.