l’image manquante: i had not thought the clay dioramas would be so affecting, more so than the footage of the khmer rouge (that sort of thing, i’ve seen too often before — in footage of north korea, and more recently than this) or images of old phnom penh (the same look of old singapore, old hong kong, old vietnam). i don’t know that the film brings anything new to the conversation — but the manner of its telling is. on every clay figurine, every tortured contour and lineament of body and face, every harrowed expression, themselves harrowing, acutely painful. you would not have thought clay could speak with this much emotion.the footage, the archival material, that did move: three children who died of starvation: a photo of them in prosperous days, innocent pleasure in looking back at the camera. footage, of an unknown cambodian traditional dancer, eloquent eyes, beguiling movement.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird