Day Ten
Super-Smey is back on! We celebrated with a fine Cambodian coffee moment in a Jackie Chan appreciation coffeehouse on the way back to distant, dusty Peace City 2.
We met a lovely grandma called Kum Sarom who was evicted from the notorious Dei Krorhorm settlement in central Phnom Penh which was bulldozed in stages until last Feb and is currently being transformed into a billowey Disney-esque wonderland.
After four fires in the old neighbourhood she feels safe here, and her daughter has a job at the garment factory on the compound. She comes from the rural Svay Rieng province and migrated to the city in search of a steady cashflow in the early 1990s. Her only issue was the water which is brought from the government by a private company and re-sold at unfriendly prices. Her daughter came home from the factory for lunch and we had a little chinwag which amounted to much the same as the above.
We spoke to everyone we ran into - an amazing day of story gathering, shooting a little backbone on the trusty Panasonic, and solidifying the modus operandi for intense production in the coming weeks.
After chatting with a bevvy beauticians, ice-sellers, teachers and general friendly folk, we exited the compound limits and stopped at a small farm-house - Peace City’s closest neighbour. Incredible tales of rural-urban clashes as Phnom Penh sprawl hits ancient village life.
I think you’ll be able to see them soon on this web doc I keep hearing about called Boomtown Babylon!
Then Thyneon tuk-tuk us home via a tank stop.
Super-early start tomorrow for the dawn intro shot…
