Nous sommes les fruits de la forêt

The Indigenous Bunong cultivate Cambodia’s forests and fields with the flick of a wrist. The rice grain embodies and brings together the ideas of preserving natural cycles, tradition, balanced economy and the worship of ancestors and gods; this equilibrium has been eaten up with the arrival of modernity and globalisation. The Bunong are losing the forest of whose ownership they have no conception. Pa Kreb belongs to the last generation of this culture of all-round skills, his voiceover analyses the clash of competing economic practices and the loss of a world in which exchange (instead of money) is imaginable. What looks like an ethnographic study (in the language of the Bunong) in the beginning and fuses the real-life present with the past that flashes up in split-screen archive material gradually becomes a lesson both bitter and valuable. Following films that catapulted his oeuvre into other realms over the last years – IRRADIÉS (Berlinale Competition 2020), EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY (Berlinale Competition 2022) and RENDEZ-VOUS AVEC POL POT (Cannes Premiere 2024) –, Rithy Panh now returns to a seemingly simpler form. Yet in modesty, there is wisdom and far-sightedness. Grand! (Christiane Büchner, Barbara Wurm)

Rithy Panh was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and arrived in Paris in 1980 after fleeing the genocide led by the Khmer Rouge regime. In 2006, he co-founded the Bophana Center in Cambodia, dedicated to preserving the country’s audiovisual heritage and providing training in related professions. The Missing Picture was the first Cambodian film nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Irradiated was awarded Best Documentary at the 2020 Berlinale. Panh has co-authored several books, including The Elimination and Peace with the Dead (with Christophe Bataille).

Director Rithy Panh. Screenplay Rithy Panh. Cinematography Prum Mésar, Mourng Vet, Cheng Socheat, Sok Chan Rado, Rithy Panh. Editing Rithy Panh, Eang Pisith. Music Marc Marder. Producer Catherine Dussart. Production company CDP (Boulogne, France). With Pa Kreb, Mak Kreb, Yeay Kreb, Mak Lisa, Pouk Choeut, Mak Choeut, Pouk Noas, Mak Noas, Pouk Pritch, Mak Pritch, Pouk Vath, Pouk Loun, Lisa Choeut, Noas Pritch Kreb.

World sales Playtime

Films: 1989: Site 2 – Aux bords des frontières (documentary). 1990: Souleymane Cissé (documentary). 1994: Les Gens de la Rizière / Rice People. 1995: La famille Tan / The Tan’s Family (short documentary). 1996: Bophana, une tragédie cambodgienne / Bophana, a Cambodian Tragedy. 1997: 10 films contre 110 000 000 de mines / 10 Films Against 110,000,000 Mines (documentary), Un soir après la guerre / One Evening After the War. 1998: Van Chan, une danseuse cambodgienne / Van Chan, a Cambodian Dancer (documentary). 1999: La Terre des âmes errantes / The Land of Wandering Souls (documentary). 2000: Que la barque se brise, que la jonque s’entrouvre (documentary). 2002: La Machine de Mort Khmère Rouge / S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (documentary). 2003: Les Gens d’Angkor / The People of Angkor (documentary). 2005: Les Artistes du théâtre brûlé / The Burnt Theatre. 2007: Le papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise / Paper Cannot Wrap Embers (documentary). 2008: Un Barrage contre le Pacifique / The Sea Wall. 2011: Duch, le Maître des forges de l’enfer / Duch, The Master of the Forges of Hell (documentary), Gibier d’élevage / Shiiku. 2013: L’Image manquante / The Missing Picture (documentary). 2015: La France est notre patrie / France Is Our Mother Country (documentary). 2016: Exil / Exile (documentary). 2018: Les Tombeaux sans noms / Graves Without a Name (documentary). 2020: Irradiés / Irradiated (documentary, Berlinale Competition 2020). 2021: Everything Will Be Ok (Berlinale Competition 2022). 2024: Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot / Meeting with Pol Pot (documentary). 2025: Nous sommes les fruits de la forêt / We Are the Fruits of the Forest.