Le Papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise

Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers

A face illuminated by red light…

- Why don't you go back to the village now?
- I don't want to... I'm ashamed.
- No-one knows what has happened to you. If you like, I'll help you... Go back to the village.
- No. I'm ashamed. No-one knows what I do here in Phnom Penh. But I know.
- I'd like to make a film about your life, a portrait of you.

The film is situated as close as one can get to the life – and thus the spiritual death – of a prostitute. The ultimate social decay ends with the irreparable injustice of a process that cannot be reversed: the destruction of a body.

For me this is a stand I have to make, an attempt to make amends. Going back over my inability to react when I was faced with something intolerable. This film project stems from there. For me, distress is intermingled with anger. I have a grudge against the people who go to see the “tarts“, the indifference, the grinding poverty, the people whose consciences are clear. And so the film will resemble this rage, fragmented, and with a cutting edge like that of the shattered debris of a dream.
Rithy Panh

France - 2006 - 1 h 30 mn - Betacam Digital • 16/9 - Colour

Director
Rithy Panh
Writer
Rithy Panh
Camera
Prum Mesar
Sound
Sear Vissal
Editing
Maris-Christine Rougerie
Music
Marc Marder

Production
Catherine Dussart Productions,
25, rue Gambetta,
92100 Boulogne, France
Tél : +33 (0)1 4605 0022
Fax : +33 (0)1 4605 0259

Co-Production
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel

with the participation of
France 3, France 5

Sales
Institut National de l'Audiovisuel,
4 avenue de l'Europe,
94366 Bry-sur-Marne Cedex, France
Tél : +33 1 4983 2000
Fax : +33 1 4983 3182
E-mail : mgautard@ina.fr