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THE KHMER SMILE

LE SOURIRE KHMER

By Fabrice BEAU

Animation - Production 2021

Fabrice travels to Cambodia to discover his country of origin. Much to his surprise, his journey will become an intense experience, rich in adventure and emotion, somewhere between dream and reality.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Animation, Road movie, Family
- Countries
- FRANCE, CAMBODIA
- Languages
- FRENCH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 70 mn
- Director(s)
- Fabrice BEAU
- Writer(s)
- Fabrice BEAU
- Producer(s)
- Fabrice BEAU (ANIMALPS PRODUCTIONS), Jeanne BASSET (LUCHAFILMS), Dara HUOT (PPSE)
- Synopsis
- It is the big day: Fabrice and his partner, Francesca, leave Paris for a long-awaited journey. They embark on a plane which flies off to... Cambodia! The origin of Fabrice is Cambodian. When he was still a baby, he was adopted in 1974 by French parents. Fabrice finally decided to make his travel of « return », to discover the country from where he comes.
  The couple lands at the Phnom Penh airport. He meets Samnang, a friendly taxi tuk-tuk driver there. The latter brings them to their hotel. On the road, Fabrice notices twice that a strange little old man observes him. He is wondering why... A real route full of discoveries but also mysteries waits for Fabrice and Francesca.
  The first stage of the journey is the visit of an orphanage. Fabrice and Francesca meet some young children there. Francesca shares funny moments with the orphans. But Fabrice finds himself again face to face with the strange little old man - who is called Serei. The latter takes Fabrice in his dreams. Real memories? Fruits of his imagination? Fabrice, slightly troubled, begins to be very concerned. During the visit of the Fine Arts Museum of Phnom Penh, Fabrice and Serei run again into each other. But a strange event comes to be added: Fabrice tries to catch up shadows that move along the walls of the museum, those of a man and a woman. This time Fabrice does not leave it, and wants absolutely to know more about it. A chase with Serei starts. From the city to the temples, from a boat sailing on the Tonlé Sap river to the incredible interview of the boss of their hotel in Siem Reap - Fabrice and Francesca find themselves in a very rocky adventure, in which the ordinary gets involved in the extraordinary.
  As the events progress, the old strange man Serei is indirectly going to guide the couple to the answers that Fabrice is looking for. But these answers are going to reveal in fact the existence of the Khmer parents of Fabrice. Birth parents who have no face. Unknowns. Fabrice has to accept their past existence - or their present one - and flies free of the questions he asks himself.
  Right in the middle of the Ta Prohm Temple, which is a part of Angkor, Serei succeeds in gathering together Fabrice and his four parents: the adoptives and the biological ones. Does Fabrice dream? No matter, tears and smiles come after. Going to Cambodia, Fabrice found what he was looking for, without knowing it...