Plots(1)
Following her mother’s death, manga artist Soriya travels to her ancestral home in Phnom Penh, with hopes of reconnecting with her distant family and using the visit as inspiration for her work. All goes well initially. Renting an apartment in Metta, a rundown Khmer Rouge-era housing complex, her visit to her maternal relatives finds her welcomed with open arms. But Soriya’s waking hours in the apartment and its surroundings are punctuated by terrifying, bloody visions, almost as though she were a conduit for horrors of the past wanting to seep into the present. Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea’s blood-chilling psychological horror explores a personal and political past through the present, transforming a characterful space into an insidious environment. Surrounded by modern high-rises, this decrepit structure, with its brutalist architecture and peeling surfaces, is a relic from a dark period in history whose painful memories it has absorbed. In tracing Soriya’s ominous journey back to her roots, Tenement hints at a necessary reckoning with Cambodia’s political past without overplaying its historical dimension. It’s an impressive work from a woefully underrepresented national cinema. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)
(more)Cast
Yoshihiko Hosoda
Japan
Best movies:
I Give My First Love to You (2009)
Prophecy (2015)
Detroit Metal City (2008)
Socheata Sveng
Cambodia
Best movies:
First They Killed My Father (2017)
Rous Mony
Best movies:
Jailbreak (2017)
Wish You Were Here (2012)
Ruin (2013)