‘Karmalink’: First Sci-Fi Film Made in Cambodia

[reader]

If ever there was a location to make a science fiction film, Cambodia is surely that place.

From Variety

Courtesy of Robert Leitzell

A book of dreams, teenagers searching for buried treasure and a quest to digitally manufacture spiritual enlightenment constitute the intriguing ingredients of “Karmalink,” a fresh and highly entertaining sci-fi mystery-adventure set in a near-future Phnom Penh. Driven by Buddhist concepts of karma and rebirth, and underscored by commentary on Cambodia’s past, present and potential future, this striking feature debut by U.S. filmmaker Jake Wachtel takes viewers on a fascinating and frequently wondrous expedition to a place where science and metaphysics intersect.

“Karmalink” should enjoy a strong festival run and broad VOD distribution following its world premiere at Venice Critics’ Week. It has theatrical potential, especially in regional markets with substantial Buddhist populations. U.S. and Cambodian release details are yet to be announced.

Phnom Penh might not seem like the obvious setting for science-fiction (indeed, this is the first sci-fi film ever made in Cambodia), but it proves to be an ideal backdrop for a tale that anchors its high-concept premise in centuries-old spiritual beliefs. Some pockets of the rapidly developing city already resemble one of those gleaming new worlds from a sci-fi movie. Minor cgi enhancement of skylines and selected streetscapes, and signs advertising the “Phnom Penh to Beijing Bullet Train” are all that’s required to give the film a convincing futuristic ambience.

There’s a strong retro-future feel to the surroundings of Leng Heng (Leng Heng Prak), a-13 year-old boy from the crowded working class community of Tralop Bek. Along with his sisters and mother (Sveng Socheata), Heng lives with his grandmother (Oum Savem). The elderly woman wears a high-tech headset provided by Dr. Sophia (Cindy Sirinya Bishop), a smiling neuroscientist studying memory loss.

While Leng Heng’s mother leads a protest group resisting forced relocation of Tralop Bek residents to make way for yet more urban development (always a hot-button issue in Phnom Penh), the boy’s most immediate concern is making sense of his dreams and how they relate to his past lives. The object Leng Heng most frequently draws in his book of dream memories is a gold Buddha statue that was stolen and buried by a thief (Ros Mony, aka Rous Mony) many centuries ago.

Like most smart kids in adventure movies, Leng Heng rallies his pals and hatches a plan. All they need to do is follow clues in his dreams and retrieve the valuable artifact, thus providing financial security for their families while Leng Heng gains closer understanding of his previous incarnations. The boys have enthusiasm but lack project managemAnswering Leng Heng’s call for help is Srey Leak (Srey Leak Chhith), a clever young orphan known for her ability to find things and trade them for a profit. After negotiating highly favorable financial terms for herself, Srey Leak marshals the plan and the lads with delightful, no-nonsense authority. In a beautiful little moment that says so much about the film’s Buddhist outlook, Srey Leak tells Leng Heng’s mother she’s helping him to “sort out his past lives” in the same matter-of-fact way that kids elsewhere might talk about doing math homework together.ent and detective skills.

As the treasure hunt gathers pace, the screenplay by Wachtel and Christopher Sean Larsen gradually increases the prevalence and importance of traditional sci-fi elements. Part of the youngsters’ investigations involve “nanobugs,” small electronic devices which attach to the forehead like a third eye and allow users to see into dreams and experience convincing augmented reality. “These augmented hipsters are ruining everything,” Srey Leak complains.

Most important is the emergence of Dr. Vattanak Sovann (Sahajak Boonthanakit), a brilliant neuroscientist who escaped his homeland during U.S. bombings in the 1970s. Glimpsed earlier with his body hooked up to a bank of electronic instruments, Dr. Sovann is playing an increasingly important role in Leng Heng’s dreams and appears to have a connection with Dr. Sophia’s research.

At this point “Karmalink” becomes a magical spiritual mystery tour, with Leng Heng’s dreams intensifying and characters such as the statue thief reappearing in different guises, and also in the boy’s present-time reality. With expert cutting by editors Harrison Atkins and Stephanie Kaznocha, it’s easy to make sense of everything, even as the narrative leaps about in time, dreams criss-cross with reality and Dr. Sovann’s quest to synthesize spiritual enlightenment comes into focus. Adding to the mystery is the question of whether Dr. Sovann is alive, dead or somewhere in-between.

Continues at

https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/karmalink-review-chiet-krawy-1235054335/

 

[Lonnie]

Sounds a little complex for my pea brain but I'll give it a go when available.

Reviews

‘Karmalink’: Venice Review

By Wendy Ide2 September 2021

Jake Wachtel makes his feature debut with this imaginative Buddist sci-fi set in Cambodia’s Pnom Penh

Source: XYZ Films

Karmalink

Dir. Jake Wachtel. Cambodia, US. 2021. 101 mins

An inventive if conceptually cluttered Cambodian Buddhist sci-fi, Karmalink starts out as a lively kids’ adventure set against a vividly realised near-future Phnom Penh and ends up wrestling with techno-philosophical conundrums and the realm of the infinite. While the first two acts are more engaging and accessible than the third – the picture does get a little bogged down in its effects and ideas – there’s no question that this is an imaginative and original debut from director Jake Wachtel.

As a piece of atmospheric world building, it’s impressive

Developed by Wachtel while he was teaching a year-long course in filmmaking within an underprivileged community in the Cambodian capital, the film deftly balances an authentic depiction of the day-to-day grind of Phnom Penh’s struggling poor with futuristic sci-fi elements. The result is a picture which, while more modestly indie in scope than District 9, shares some of that picture’s eye-catching freshness and intriguing blend of sci fi with social commentary. Following on from its premiere in the opening film slot of Venice Critics’ Week, the picture should enjoy further festival interest and could find a home with an independent streaming platform or specialist distributor. Solid US indie credentials within the crew – the score is by Ariel Marx who most recently worked on Shiva Baby; the lithe cinematography is by Rob Leitzell, who shot Black Bear – might help raise the film’s profile with arthouse audiences.

The neighbourhood in which Leng Heng (Leng Heng Prak) and his multi-generational family live is threatened by developers: a bullet train service to China is being proposed and its route will slice through friendships and families, annihilating homes and shuttering businesses. Leng Heng believes that he holds the key to changing his family’s fortunes. Each night, in vivid dreams, he revisits past lives. And in each subconscious glimpse, there’s a solid gold Buddha statuette which was filched from a temple by one of his past incarnations. Leng Heng is convinced that his dreams are a treasure trail, leading to the hiding place of the statuette; he recruits enterprising orphan street kid Srey Leak (Srey Leak Chhin) to help with the search after she proves her detective mettle by locating his missing flip flop.

The quest is hindered by the fact that, unlike many of the city’s wealthier inhabitants, Leng Heng and Srey Leak are not “augmented” - connected through nano bugs in the bloodstream and a glowing button in the centre of the forehead to a multidimensional virtual world and a seemingly inexhaustible search engine. Fortunately, Srey Leak has light fingers and connections in the underworld.

As a piece of atmospheric world building, it’s impressive. The rundown neighbourhood alleys are dwarfed by the monster towers of a nascent hi tech Asian supercity; the colour palette pulses with neons. But the film’s main assets are the two central performances – Prak and Chhin are non-professional actors recruited from one of Wachtel’s filmmaking classes. Both are engaging enough that we invest in the friendship between the two characters, even if the film’s climactic attempts to hack the wheel of karma don’t quite hold together.