CTFF 2024 Official Selection: tenement
TENEMENT
2024 | Drama, Horror | Cambodia | 85 min | Khmer, English subtitles
Directed by: Inrasothythep Neth & Sokyou Chea
Written by: Sokyou Chea & Inrasothythep Neth
Screening: Sunday, September 15th, 6:00pm at Art Theatre Long Beach
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Synopsis: Following the death of her mother, a Cambodian manga artist decides to travel to Cambodia along with her boyfriend, in a quest to find out more about the country her mother fled, she reunites with lost family and moves into the building where her mother used to live. As she tries to find out more about her past, she’s confronted to strange events within the building that hint at something darker going on with the residents.
What first appears as over-caring considerations from the community towards the newcomers soon turns out to be part of a ritual. The residents are preparing a new host for the building’s evil spirit, before it starts killing them once again.
Co-Director: Inrasothythep Neth
Thep is a Cambodian filmmaker who has worked as a director on various music videos, TV commercials, web series, and short films since 2015. His first short film, THE DINNER, earned him Best Cinematography and Best Short Film awards at the 6th Chaktomuk Short Film Festival in 2017.
Two years later, the premiere of his second short film, BEFORE THE RAIN, earned him the Post-Production Award from Kongchak Pictures, Audience Choice Award, and Best Short Film at the 8th Chaktomuk Short Film Festival in 2019. His film (Before the Rain) went on to premiere at the 4th Busan Art Film Festival (South Korea), the 3rd Asia Peace Film Festival (Pakistan), the Tokachi International Short Festival 2020 (Japan), and SeaShorts 2021 (Malaysia). This will be his first feature film as a Director.
Co-Director: Sokyou Chea
Sokyou is an award-winning Cambodian Writer-Director. Her debut fictional short film សេះហោះ (The Ride) (2013) was selected into the final of the TROPFEST SEA 2013 short film festival. Later, she wrote and directed short films that addressed social issues and carried educational messages, distributed via social media platforms. She pitched ‘Soul Searching’, a supernatural comedy thriller feature film project, as writer-director and won the top prize – the Bucheon Award – in the Network of Asia Fantastic Film (NAFF) project market at the Bucheon International Film Festival, 2018. She has written two successful plays: អណ្តើកក្លាហាន (The Courageous Turtle) (2016) addressing the topic of civil courage, which toured domestically for 3 years and has been performed locally and internationally, and ផ្ទះកសិដ្ឋានធម្មជាតិ (The Nature Farm House) (2022) as a Grantee of Cambodian Living Arts Cultural Season 2022. She is currently pursuing her MA in Directing at MetFilm, London, as the receipient of the prestigious ‘Voices That Matter – Women in the Screen Industries’ scholarship. Tenement is her first feature film as a Director.
