The Land of the Wandering Souls

The Land of Wandering Souls
Directed by	Rithy Panh
Written by	Rithy Panh
Produced by	Cati Couteau
Cinematography	Prum Mesa
Edited by	Isabelle Roudy Marie-Christine Rougerie
Music by	Marc Marder
Distributed by	INA
Release dates	19 August 2000 (2000-08-19) (UK) 10 March 2001 (2001-03-10) (France)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	Cambodia France
Language	Khmer

The Land of the Wandering Souls, or La terre des âmes errantes, is a 2000 French-Cambodian documentary film directed by Rithy Panh.

Synopsis

The film follows a Cambodian family as they work to dig a trench across Cambodia to lay the country's first optical fiber cable, depicting their hardships.

At one point during their excavation, the workers uncover a killing field, a remnant of the genocidal purges of the Khmer Rouge.

Reception

The Land of the Wandering Souls premiered at the 2000 Edinburgh International Film Festival. It went on to screen at around a dozen other film festivals, winning numerous awards, including:

• Banff Rockie Award for best social and political documentary at the Banff World Television Festival.
• Golden Gate Award for best current events film or video at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
• Best documentary feature (honorable mention) at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
• The Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

The film was also featured on "Wide Angle", a Public Broadcasting Service television series.[1]

References

1. "Land of Wandering Souls". Public Broadcasting Service. 2002-08-01. Archived from the original on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2007-07-14.

External links

• The Land of the Wandering Souls at IMDb