Release Date: Out Now
Director: Patrice Leconte
Cinematographer: Jean-Marie Dreujou
Studio/Run Time: Severin Films, 80 min.
Cambodia from the eyes of a tourist
Most documentary narrators act like khaki-clad tour guides, measuring their self-importance by the number of factoids they can send in one ear and out the other. Dogora is a documentary that features no narrator or dialogue; instead, filmmaker Patrice Leconte cues Etienne Perruchon’s compositions (one of which is the documentary’s namesake) to add a sense of grandeur to Cambodians’ day-to-day lives. With wide-eyed fascination, Leconte’s camera peers over a group of kids sleeping under an outdoor roof and scrutinizes hundreds of factory workers assembling jeans. But there’s a better reason to let this filmmaker be your guide—his fearlessness. When he’s not basking in the sights, he’s sauntering through a floating village and speeding up alongside motorbike traffic. Instead of a simple history lesson, Leconte presents a fascinating depiction of Cambodia’s ever-changing present.