"Why tell my story?" "Savannah... now that he's left us, what shall I say about him?" "He came to Phnom Penh... in August 1992." "He'd returned from the Anlong Veang front." "Four years in the jungle... fighting the Khmer Rouge." "He'd been travelling on the death wagons, with those who had nothing to lose." "Mostly peasants, who hadn't enough... rice to last until the next harvest and were... off to seek work in the city." "On those wagons, no one needed a ticket." "You just had to have faith in your destiny." "If the tracks were mined, the wagons blew up." "Savannah, Maly et Phâl... had just been demobilized." "They each had less than 45,000 riels." "Maly abd Phâl were peasants, one from Kampong Cham, the other from Takeo." "Phâl, wounded, could never again work in the rice paddies." "Savannah had lost his father, his mother, his brother and sisters, all murdered by the Pol Pot regime." "All he has left in the world is his uncle, whom he hopes to find in Phnom Penh." "Maly won't be going back to his village, he's been fighting the war too long." "His wife sold their land in order... to feed the children, and finally nothing remained." "And because she had no news from him, she remarried." "Ever since, Maly's heart... has been harder than stone." "Savannah, from his childhood on, knew nothing but war, the camps, famines, massacres." "When he was old enough, they sent him to the front." "Phâl!" "Wake up!" "I was walking along a street, with both my legs, and what do I see?" "A bunch of dollar notes." "I pick it up and run." "Night comes, I don't want to spend any of it, so I can use it to go back to my village." "I sleep on the sidewalk, afraid I'll be robbed," "I grip the bills so close to me... that my arms hurt." "!" "I was making plans... and you wake me up!" "Look!" "Just thin air!" "Only the marks from my nails!" "Prince Sihanouk has returned." "The first free elections... were organized." "The curfew was lifted." "We could go out again at night." "For the first time... we talked about peace, reconstruction, and freedom." "Savannah, you're from here, take me to Traloak Bèk." " To do what?" " To find my cousin." "I've got to give her the message... about her husband." "It's been weighing on me a long time." "Maly, you coming?" "I don't want to play the bird of ill omen." "To each his own mourning." "Look, he's starting again." "He'll be at it all night." "I'll go with you to Traloak Bèk." "That's not enough to play." "Two or three hands, you'll be out." "Do you know Phany?" "She's my cousin." "That house over there." "Go on." "Where's my husband?" " Your husband is dead." " Dead!" "After 3 years, all that's left is that word?" " How much is a ticket?" " 2,000 riels." "I only have 1,600." "Will that do?" "No, it's 2,000." "I'm back from the front." "It's all I've got." "Two packets of lotus seeds." "You're lucky to be back." "My brother went." "He was your age." " Here, for your ticket." " Please, no!" "Take it as a gift to a soldier." "Poeuv!" "Come, we're going home." "How did you buy this paradise?" "It's like being in Europe!" "Sav!" "Veun!" "Sit down!" "Where did you find her?" "She's beautiful!" "In Cambodia, money is power!" "Come down." "Don't be afraid!" "Jump!" "I only have to change my hiding place." "You want my cap?" "What for?" "Can you keep a secret?" "You sure?" "You live in the "White Building"?" "Grandmother!" "Mama, you know him?" "My grandson?" "How are you?" "I'm used to pain now." "I was worried about you." "My dear boy, you're home!" "I have only these two hands... to thank Buddha... for keeping you alive." "All these years..." "I've had a heavy heart thinking of you." "That's over now." "Put that down." "Go get your father." "Hurry." "Your uncle just left for art school." "I saw him in the café." "No matter, just get him!" "Uncle!" "I knew it was you." "I was playing chess and saw you go by." "I said, "That's my nephew."" "No one believed me!" "Pheary, find Thon and Sovan!" "Go buy chicken and wine!" "I don't have any money." "dernier, I married your aunt last year." "Her husband died on the front." "Cold rice is still rice, a widow is still a woman." "She has two children... and three sisters who hang around... doing nothing." "If your aunt could only see!" "Leave Sarath in peace!" "You and your father, the only picture I've got left." "Savannah, stop serving!" "Bring some ice!" "The girls forgot to serve any!" "Are you blind?" "Is this how you work?" "Maly!" "What luck to see you again!" "What're you doing here?" "I came with Rotha." "He's a musician at the dance bar." "The bride's his cousin." "And you, you're related?" "No, my uncle lives in "the building"." "His wife embroidered the couple's clothing." "I'm lending a hand, to make a little money." "The Tonlé Sap, you know where it is?" "Come for a drink." "I'll get you in." "I've gotta go." "See you." "Honey!" "How are you?" "Don't be so mistrustful, honey!" " Lots of people?" " Yes." "Srey Poeuv dances, but she won't sleep with just anybody." "Only with the rich." "Go have a drink." "What's your real name?" "Srey Poeuv, "the little last-born"." "Where're you from?" "You're not from Phnom Penh." "Does that concern you?" "Tell me." "What's it got to do with you?" "From Prey Veng." ""Land of Sparrows"!" "What wind brought you here?" " Let's dance." " I already have a client." " Just one song." " No." " Dance with me." " Let me go." "Where're you taking her?" "Fuck off!" "Let's dance." "My poor boy, your face is all puffed up." "Use this salve." "If you had that B-40, the war would've ended... before the UN came!" "Sit down." "Too many mouths to feed." "I can't stay here with you." "You can sleep in this room." "I keep the key, just in case..." "I get into a fight with the women... or in case..." "I drink a glass too many." "As soon as I close my eyes," "I'm back in the jungle, my body aching with fear." "Every night..." "I relive the explosions," "Phâl's leg torn apart by a mine." "Uncle, how can we live... in a city like this?" "So many people with nothing to eat, and the few who are so rich!" "Is this what peace is?" "These years of war... and suffering have driven us mad." "The world forgot us... for much too long." "And now, we're willing to accept anything... on just a promise." "Freedom's like a race... through a minefield." "It demands sacrifices, and we look at it... through the eyes of a battered child." "When I think about those who died," "I'm ashamed that I'm still alive." "You're young." "Even if there are those... who run after money, you must think about the future." "Poeuv, come with me." "I'm begging you, don't go away." "Take that, but stay with me." "No one here respects the law, only money and power." "You can't become someone, you've got to be born someone." "You can't leave so many people... plunged for so long in despair." "Even if hope... is the last thing we have left." "For weeks I waited, without any news from him." "As if this city of sorrow had... swallowed him up." "Later..." "I learned he kept thinking of me, just as I was thinking of him." "Give it everything, it's win or die!" "I can't find any work." "As soon as they see me, they're scared." "But I still feel like..." "I've got my two legs." "Aren't you getting a pension?" "You kidding?" "It's always gonna be tomorrow!" "Anyway, what's 25,000 riels?" "Enough to last five days." "Everything's modern now!" "Life, food, cars, love... it's all modern!" "All except us!" "We're just two old wrecks!" "It's lucky I've got my cousin." "And you?" "You still living at your uncle's?" "Broke as we are, there's no big chance of finding a wife." "Forget it, let's drink!" "To the free market, which brings us peace and freedom!" "Twenty years of war." "You lost your brother and sisters, your parents: five people." "Me, almost my whole family, and a leg." "And now they tell us to forget, think about the future, forgive the killers." "Forgive, okay, but you can't forget." "You can't make all those... corpses disappear." "You, at least you can fight." "Think of me Saturday when you're boxing!" "And my rent?" "I've got kids!" "My husband's in the hospital!" "Everybody's got problems!" "You rent this shithole for more than it's worth, you can wait a little!" "I make cheap jewelry... and live near the sky, but I'm not rolling in money." "Even if I double the rent," "I can go out and... find 10 tenants every a day." "No one wants to live here!" "Four cans for 350 families!" "You think so?" "With all those refugees coming back?" "Who're you looking for?" "Srey Poeuv." "Now there's a good tenant... who pays on time!" "She's up there." "Welcome." "Remember your rubbers with the girls!" "I'll use two, don't worry!" "Well, Savannah?" "Things going okay for you, eh?" "For you too, Maly." "We just want to have a good time." "It was some time ago, everyone's forgotten that fight." "There must have been... a dozen since then, right?" "No gun?" "I can't leave it with you!" "Don't make any trouble!" "I've got a deal for you." "See me on your way out." "I just want to be with you." "To look at you." "Nothing else." "Forgive me." "Where are you going?" "Take out your gun." "I don't have it anymore." "The war's over!" "Just to shake him up." "We can pistol-whip him, he'll remember." "Who?" "A deadbeat." "Next time I'll take... everything if he doesn't pay." "The Chinese gives us a third... of all we collect." "At least they've got a TV." "You afraid?" "Don't want to get your hands dirty?" "Go to hell!" "Get this into your head:" "I take my rice wherever I find it." " Where's your husband?" " I don't know." "Don't hurt me!" "Tell him to pay up!" "Tell him to bring me the money tomorrow!" "If not, I'll kill you!" "Fucking luck!" "Everyone has to pay his debts!" "He wasn't there." "His wife'll let him know." "Come on, let's go." "Listen, Savannah." "It's a job, that's all." "It's not worse than the war." "When life's too hard, even death doesn't matter." "Nothing scares me anymore." " How much a basket?" " 15,000 riels." "That much?" "Give me two plates of shrimp." "No other fruit?" "Why'd you buy all that?" "We'll never finish it." "If there's a whole chicken left, we'll see." "When I was a child they fought here." "There were bodies in the river, the water was blood-red." "People had gone mad." "You don't have any memories?" "It's best to live from day to day." "With no past and no future." "Just be carried by the current." "If the water flows southward, I go south." "If it flows westward, I go west." "I'd like to see the ocean." "Do the stars shine brighter... where other people live?" "I don't know." "To each his own destiny." "There are so many breaks in your lifeline." "Pain ends here." "Why are you crying?" "I'm so happy." "No one's ever loved me like you." "It's the first time... that I really feel loved." "I prefer your face without makeup." "Don't tie your hair back." "You're so beautiful." "With bar girls, beauty... fades faster than with other women." "At thirty we look like we're fifty." "When my beauty's gone," "I'll kill myself." "I want you to be my wife." "You hear me?" "I want to marry you." "Take me back to town." "Why won't you listen to me?" "It's impossible." "I've already been sold." "I can't buy myself back." "I don't care." "I love you, that's all." "You're wasting your time with me." "I don't want to get hooked up." "Bar girls are made to live alone." "When you sell your body, you're already dead." "Come with me." "Let me go." "Let go." "People are looking." "Clients are asking for you." "Mind your own business." "Let go of her." "Get off my case!" "I can't let you... go back in there." "If you do, it's over between us." "Go away!" "I don't want to see you anymore!" "You see, sugar," "I fought ten years in the war." "When I came back, I had nothing." "Even a bar girl doesn't want me." "But I'm in love with you." "Poeuv!" "Come on, sing along." "I'm singing this one for you." "Come, let's go home." "My husband's dead!" "Help me!" "Who can I count on?" "I suffer and I'm alone!" "Open your eyes, look at your wife!" "Open your eyes, look at me!" "What are you doing?" "I'm going to our village to see my mother." "Want to come?" "This is my little brother." "Map!" "Don't you recognize me?" "Dear little kid." "How you've grown in two years!" " Where's Mother?" " In the house." "Mama, Poeuv's back!" "My little sister," "I missed you so much!" "A mother thinks of her child... as an oar strokes the water." "A mother is forgotten... as soon as her back is turned." "Eat all you want." "You too, don't be embarrassed." "We used up all our rice... last week, and it's two months... until the next harvest." "I borrowed this rice from my neighbor." "It's because of last year's drought." "Srey Poeuv, you've changed a lot." "I hardly recognize you." "You resemble the people in Phnom Penh." "You haven't sent... much news." "And we had the head... of the village write you our letters." "Each one 500 riels." "Didn't you get them?" "It doesn't matter." "As long as you sent money, we knew you were all right." "They play as soon as the sun rises." "They run around." "They roll around in the dust." "In the evening, they're so dirty... you don't recognize them." "We don't know whose they are." "They themselves don't know, that's for sure." "Then one morning they're taken away to war." "The father went in place... of his son and died." "Then they come back for the son." "The wounds... the wars... the tears..." "You won't be a soldier... like your father, promise me!" "You'll never be a soldier!" "You want to drink?" "Are you hungry?" "You don't drink, you don't eat!" "You already cost me 300 dollars." "If you wind up just skin and bones, you'll be useless!" "We've all been evicted!" "No one can stay here!" "I saved some of your things." "350 families out on the street!" "Everyone took what they could." "Go see what's left!" "Why are you throwing us out?" "Answer!" "Where will they live?" "Where'll I live now?" "Oh, chapouk!" "How pretty they are!" "I got them cheap." "I'll make... some money on them." "You want to sell them?" "They sing so beautifully!" "Watch out for stray cats." "You promised you wouldn't... make any demands." "I love you." "I shouldn't love you so much." "Life isn't fair." "Don't say that, or it'll flow through your fingers... like water." "Get your fists up!" "Use your right!" "Watch his left foot, block it, and hit with your right!" "It's no kind ofjob, getting beat up like that." "Look at yourself." "I was too tired." "I was unloading ships this morning... and there aren't many matches." "We don't have any... money for next week" "Even if it pays, is it worth a battered face?" "I'll quit boxing... as soon as you earn your living honestly." "I never hurt anyone." "I never went to war." "But I've got to manage somehow." "No one ever helped me." "No one!" "Anyway, I can't stop." "What else can I do?" "For my cigarettes." "You smoke and smoke... on an empty stomach." "You'll end up with TB." "I don't need anything." "What's 5,000 riels worth?" "Not even enough for the movies." "We still owe 30,000 riels... to Amouy for the rice." "I sold my earrings." "I'll buy you nicer ones." "I can'tjust stay here... waiting for you." "We're living in filth, and no one wants to see it." "But so what?" "Get out!" "Don't hurt me!" "Damn bitch, Madam Touch is angry!" "If you want your freedom, pay up!" "I already started to." "And the clothes, the food, you think it's all free?" "You still owe 1,400 dollars!" "Pay back, or else..." "I don't know... how I got home." "It's like a block... of silence and obscurity... in my memory." "I told Savannah..." "I was returning to the bar... to start working there again." "And that he couldn't help me." "He saw that it was impossible... for him to solve my problems." "That drove him crazy." "For people like us, happiness doesn't last." "Savannah and I loved each other, but our love... was like a shooting star... that zooms through the sky... aiming at nowhere... and returns to the void." "All we had left was the illusion of life, the illusion of freedom, like a fire behind the eyelids... after being dazzled." "It was a time of upheaval." "Fear and poverty... had corrupted all of us," "even our love and friendship." "What's wrong?" "Why are you sad?" "Sit down." "Do you have some illness?" "Answer." "If I say no, you won't use a condom." "Don't move!" "Don't touch her or I'll shoot!" "Don't move!" "The lady dictated this to me." "I'm afraid I might be... gone for a long time." "I'm taking the bus for Phnom Penh." "I beg of you, stay here a while." "If you hear nothing from me... within three days, you can go home." "I love you." "Srey Poeuv." "Fucking cards!" "How could I know?" "I haven't left here for two days!" "These aren't even his pants." "The rest..." "I'll get over it." "You'll see." "I can hardly wait." "Soon he won't even have his necklace." "Don't worry, wait until those guys destroy her." "Nobody'll want her then, and you can pick up the pieces." "You'll have her eating out of your hand." "You talk like a politician." "You'd kill your own brother... to be a customs officer!" "For 10,000 riels, she's yours, when you like, wherever you like." "Why are you so attached to her?" "Besides, her pimp will hassle you." "Why suffer?" "Enjoy yourself and forget her." "You can kill yourself working, you don't even earn 2 dollars a day." "And you want a girl the whole year!" "2 dollars a day and he wants his own girl!" "Ask her:" "How much per day. 100 dollars!" "Here!" "Who else?" "No one!" "I've won again!" "The money, sweetheart!" "I went to the sea." "It's immense, without islands, without banks, the waves are enormous." "I want to go back there with you." "In winter the air will be mild." "But if the war starts again, we won't be able to go there." "The fishermen say the sea's inside." "If you listen with your eyes closed, you'll be carried by the tide." "Listen." "Maly was right, you're just a whore!" "You'll never change!" "You want to live with her?" "You don't even know... if it's your child." "Don't moralize." "Neither Poeuv nor my child... are going to go back living on that dump." "I know you're rotten, so can't you come up with something?" "That one." "Cobra blood." "Look." "Me too," "I wanna leave." "Disappear, go to Australia." "I lost everything gambling," "I'm drowning in debt, and the Chinese is on my back." "If you're interested, I've got something." "An isolated jeweler's." "It has to be worked out, but it looks good." "I'm in, but afterward... we go our own ways." "Life's too short." "We won't bump into each other again." "To your son." "We've still got this glimmer of hope, so let's profit from the light it gives us." "It went offjust fine." "This white guy gets in his car." "We follow him... hold the gun to his temple." "The watchman is helpless." "I got behind the wheel." "He was white as a sheet, as if drained of all blood." "We walked out nice and calm." "They started screaming, but we were gone." "If it goes like that tomorrow..." "A heart to love you forever." "For you a TV, a video machine, and gold earrings!" "Meat for every meal!" "More children, a real house!" " A children's room!" " A real bed!" " Don't scream!" " Drop the bike!" "Back up!" "Hands up!" "Over there!" "Don't hurt them." "Take everything!" "Thief!" "Don't take my gold!" "Go on out, you first!" "Stop!" "Savannah, don't die!" "Don't leave me." "Stay with me." "Don't be afraid... of anything... of anyone..." "I was only 19, and he was 28." "Nothing belonged to us, not even our love." "And without love, we're just the dust of life." "Here they eat, they drink, they meet people." "I'm a waitress." "Maly comes by sometimes with girls." "He bought himself the rank of superintendent." "Bophana, his daughter." "We were born with the war." "It destroyed everything in its wake." "We carried hope inside us... like a mother carries her child." "We fed it with our dreams... and our blood." "Now there's no fear left in me." "There's just luck, good or bad." "But I have nowhere to go." "Can you maybe tell me... where to live in peace?" "I close my eyes and dream of a world without conspirators."