FESTIVALS: *Dok.Fest Münich (Germany) * IDFA (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) * Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK) * AFI Docs (Silver Spring, USA) * Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece) * Frontline Club (London, UK) * Festival del Cinema Africano, d’Asia e America Latina (Milano, Italy) * Movies that Matter Foundation (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) * FIFDH - Festival du film et Forum sur les Droits Humains (Geneve, Switzerland) * Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, USA) * Millenium International Documentary Film Festival (Bruxelles, Belgium) * Busan International Film Festival (Seoul , South Korea) * Camerimage - The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Toruń, Poland) * Frauen Film Tage (Wien, Austria) * Antenna International Documentary Film Festival (Sydney, Australia) * Human Rights Human Wrongs (Oslo, Norway) * Granada International Film Festival CINES DEL SUR (Spain) * San Sebastián Human Rights Film Festival (Spain) * Jerusalem Anthropological Film Festival (Jerusalem, Israel) * Docs Against Gravity Film Festival (Poland) * Tutti nello stesso piatto (Trento, Italy) * CineAgenzia (Camposampiero, Italy) * Salaya International Documentary Film Festival (Nakornpathom, Thailand) * Globale Mittelhessen (Kirchvers, Germany) * Coalmine (Switzerland) * Barbican Centre (London, UK) * FOKAL - Fondation Connaissance et libertés (Haïti) * Assen International Filmfestival (The Netherlands)
AWARDS: * Special Jury Award - Les Escales Documentaires de Libreville!
* “Windows on the World” Prize for the Best Feature Film - Festival del Cinema Africano, d'Asia e America Latina
* Best Documentary - Festival del Cinema Africano, d'Asia e America Latina
* Inspiration Award - Full Frame
* Special Mention Award - Salaya Doc Festival
* Best Documentary - Busan Wide Angle
The Storm Makers
Category |
Abuse, Corruption, Human Interest, Social Issues, Women
Year |
2014
Country |
France / Cambodge
Running time |
66’ - 62’
Format |
HD
Production |
Tipasa Production, Bophana Production (Rithy Panh)
Director |
Guillaume Suon
Aya is a former slave. At the age of 16, the young Cambodian peasant was sold to a Malaysian recruitment agency to work as a maid. There she was beaten, abused and deprived without receiving a salary. Now back in village, she is just as poor as when she left. Dishonoured and traumatised, what is left of her humanity?
The film traces modern-day slavery in Cambodia by disclosing the fate of this young woman and following, in parallel, the daily lives of two human traffickers, a local recruiter and the head of an agency. Cambodian people call these traffickers “Mey Kechol”: The Storm Makers.
From the impoverished remote villages to the bustling urban centre of Phnom Penh, The Storm Makers reveals a unique perspective on the exploitation of Cambodia's rural population. The film raises an unsettling question: what is the price of a young peasant‘s life in contemporary Cambodian society?
