The Weekly - March 10

8/19/2019 The Weekly - March 10

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WEEKLY

THURSDAY - MARCH 10, 2016

Vol: 01 | Issue: 27 T h e

BehindTheCurtain


2/12

8,000+copies every week

600+locations in CambodiaREGULARS

Around Town

The best listings in town PAGES 8 & 9

FILMS, EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS

Kool As UDesigner Kosal Ou looks

to the future

PAGE 3

Boeung Kak Rejuvenation through art

PAGE 4

PUBLISHER

T. Mohan

EDITOR:

James Reddick

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Maddy Crowell, Jonathan Cox,

Michael Light

ART DIRECTION:

Khiev Chanthara, Aim Valinda

096 217 7770 | 012 244 982

[email protected]@khmertimeskh.com

ADVERTISING SALES:

Mary Shelistilyn Clavel

[email protected]

010 678 324

NEWSROOM:

No. 7 Street 252

Khan Daun Penh

Phnom Penh 12302

Kingdom of Cambodia

023 221 660

PRINTER: TST Printing House

DISTRIBUTION:

Kim Steven Yoro

016 869 302

[email protected]

AVAILABLE AT:

Monument Books

No. 53 Street 426

Phnom Penh

[email protected]

023 217 6177

The Weekly is published 48 times a year

in Phnom Penh. No content may be

reproduced in any form without prior

consent of the publisher.

Cover Photo: Fabien Mouret

PAGE 6, 7 & 10

I train them not only for dance, I

train them for life, how to live as a

ladyboy. I teach everything – how to

take care of their skin, how to takehormones, everything.

Gaza ZooA zoo feels the brunt of

war and isolationPAGE 5

CabaretBackstage at the country’s

only ladyboy revuePAGE 6, 7 & 10

CoffeeA Feel Good StoryPAGE 11

xxxxxxxx

F a b i e n M o u r e t

S u p p l i e d

Step it Up Final Night

@Meta House, 37Sothearos Boulevard,6:30 PM

The nal night of theStep it Up lm festival,which showcasesthe lives of girls andwomen, brings anotherround of lms fromwomen directors inCambodia. DirectorSokyou Chea (left)will be present for aQ&A session after ascreening of her lm,“The Ride”.

THURSDAY

S u p p l i e d

For several years, the folks behind Simone Art caféand bistrot and local artists have been teamingup to try to rejuvenate the resilient Boeung Kakneighborhood. This weekend marks the secondannual art festival to celebrate, and raise money,for the ‘hood. Featuring 45 artists, including music,dancing, painting, and even Bokator, over two days,this is the place to be this weekend.

Boeung Kak Art Festival

@Boeung Kak, $5 adults, $3 students

SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Not to Miss:

A girl in her home, a oatinghouse on Tonle Sap in Kampong

Chhnang Province.

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THURSDAY MARCH 10, 2016

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Pointing to the

showroom of his

new boutique

clothing store, Ou

Kosal admits that

his – a beautiful, open store with

ull clothing racks stocked with

his own designs – is just a small

part of what he has in mind for

he future.

“It’s still on the way up,” he

ays of his clothing company,

Kool As U, which is an anagram

of Kosal’s name. After opening

nearly two and a half years agoon Street 19, Kosal abruptly

closed his store in November,

citing the costs of rent and the

desire for a new location. When

a friend told him he was closing

his bar on Street 208 (between

Street 51 and Street 63), he

umped at the chance for a fresh

tart.

Now Kosal’s designs, which

are primarily casual wear using

ocally sourced materials suited

or the Cambodian heat, will be

available on the second floor of

a Khmer-style apartment. He

hopes to open on either March

25 or April 5 (“Five is my luckynumber,” he explains). Although

the store will not be visible from

the street, Kosal has already

made a name for himself as one

of the city’s up-and-coming

designers, so he expects his

clients to be able to find him.

Kosal says that his customer

base is split virtually in half

between the local middle class

and the ex-pat community.

“Many of my customers

are middle class who prefer to

have something that’s better

quality [than in the markets]and [originally] designed,” he

explains. “Some people who

have money don’t want to

go abroad to get something.”

Although the clothes made in his

showroom are more expensive

than at a normal tailor, or in

places like Central Market, the

prices are not exorbitant. A pair

of trousers is just $23, while

shorts are $15, depending on the

material and design.

Kosal’s business – which

includes a small workshop

with five employees who make

specially ordered clothes for

other companies – is remarkableconsidering his background.

A native of Kratie Province, he

graduated high school in 1999.

At the time, universities were

only offering a few degrees

in business and finance. An

education in design was unheard

of.

Instead, he got hands-on

instruction through the country’s

behemoth garment industry,

working as a merchandiser for

a factory supplying to high-

end international companies

like Prada and Burberry. For adecade, he saw first-hand the

process of ordering, design and

production. Nearly 15 years

later, he finally felt that he was

ready to start a clothing line of

his own.

“I felt like Cambodia was

starting to grow, and I thought

‘It’s time for me to start

something else,” he says. “I

wanted to do something of my

own.”

After seeing clothes made

in the country’s factories and

Made In Cambodia

The Kool As U creatorlooks to the future

MARY CLAVEL

[email protected]@khmertimeskh.com

010 678 324010 678 324010 678 324

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then exported to the developed

world, Kosal had a mission to

start a local brand. “We mainlysupply garments to the world.

Why don’t we produce and sell

them here?” he asked.

Slowly, he built up a network

of loyal customers attracted

to his sleek designs, many of

which he says are inspired by

British brands like Paul smith.

At the same time, business in

his workshop, which is staffed

by former garment employees

experienced in clothing

production, has expanded

because of orders from small,

mostly international brands.

As he prepares to open his

second shop this month, Kosal

says that soon he will need tosplit up the two businesses,

with his clothing line separate

from the workshop. One day, he

hopes to open a small factory to

cater to brands who aren’t able

to order on a big enough scale

to do business with the large

garment factories.

“I don’t want to link the [two

businesses] together and I don’t

want the other designers to feel

like they’re promoting me,” he

explains. “I made a company to

support small designers and

small companies.”

By James Reddick

Kheng Sen inthe workshop.

Ou Kosal in his newboutique store.

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Most who havespent time in

Cambodia know

the story of

Boeung Kak Lake. More than

4,000 families were forced to

leave their homes to make way

for a massive development

project. While a few returned,

most relocated to the provinces.

The neighborhood became a

cheap hotbed for junkies.

“It was a fucking mess,” Marj

Arnaud, a French expat who has

been living in the Boeung Kak

neighborhood for three years,explained. “So many junkies. It

was a dark neighborhood.”

I met Arnaud at Simone Art,

a café and restaurant she co-

founded with Ludi Labille that

quietly doubles as a politicalmessage: art can rebuild a lost

community.

Arnaud discovered Boeung

Kak three years ago, while

backpacking solo through

Southeast Asia. When she

landed in Phnom Penh, she told

her tuk tuk driver to take her to

the cheapest guesthouse, and he

brought her to #10 Guesthouse,

a barren sand-colored building

that once bordered the lake.

Most guests were turned off

by the neighborhood, but for

Arnaud it became a source ofinspiration. “The eviction ruined

a lot. I wanted the neighborhood

to be reborn, to recreate it,”

she says. Now fluent in Khmer,

Arnaud has rarely returned to

her home country, in the southof France. Last year, she spent

two months in France. “So, I’m

good for awhile,” she laughs.

The idea for Simone Art came

to Arnaud during her stay in the

neighborhood, and she called

her friend Ludi Labille to recruit

her as a co-owner.

“I called Ludi, and I said,

Cambodia is nice, come see. She

came and she said, ‘Wow, it is

nice.’” Labille soon moved to co-

run Simone Art.

At the time, two years ago,

there were only two runningguesthouses. The neighborhood

was considered dangerous by

many and still had a rampant

drug problem.

Together, Labille and Arnaud

started with a campaign to clean

the streets. They recruited a

team of neighbors and expats

and wandering backpackers and

began by picking up trash and

leftover rubble.

“We started cleaning. We

added concrete pavement for

roads. We added lights. Then

two French people openedbusinesses. We wanted to

develop with art and music. We

had many walls, so we thought

– we need color.” Around that

time, a new generation of

Cambodian street artists was

starting to rise. Artists quietly

began to paint the concrete walls that enclose the area.

“People were still scared [of

the neighborhood], so we started

creating more events.”

Roughly 40 graffiti artists

began to paint from around the

world – Colombia, England,

the States, New Zealand,

France. Slowly, walls that were

overbearingly tall and white

began to fill with color. Massive,

detailed murals of smiling faces

now coat the walls.

One sign reads: “Play with

new rules.” A vintage store sellscheap western clothes. The

neighborhood is not unlike

London’s Soho or New York’s

Brooklyn – young, broke artists

who cover dilapidated corners of

expensive cities with art, which

consequently jacks up real estate

prices.

The Boeung Kak

neighborhood hasn’t quite

reached a level of high-end

investment, though. That’s still

the largest challenge for Simone

Art, which has yet to make a

profit.“We start everything with our

own money,” Arnaud said.

But for the community, the

investment seems to have been

worthwhile. The two existing

businesses have been joined

by seven others – including

an incoming lesbian barand French guesthouse. For

Lucky Somnang, one of the

few residents to have stayed

behind after the community was

evicted, the new changes have

been immense.

“People had no jobs when

the lake was gone. People were

crying. They had to go work at

factories, some working with

garbage, some selling fruits.

I stay because I had a job

here,” Lucky told me from #10

Guesthouse where he works.

“It’s in a good way now. Nowit’s clean. It’s in a good way for

us.” And for Simone Art, it’s just

the beginning.

For the second annual year,

they will host a street festival this

weekend to bring attention to

Boeung Kak’s growing art scene.

Called “Boeung Kak Art,” the

festival will feature live hip-hop,

urban art, workshops, street art,

body painting, and fire shows.

All proceeds will go to rebuilding

the community.

“It’s a political message, but

it’s also a positive message. Forsome, it’s the first time they’ve

seen art on the walls. It starts a

discussion in the community

about what’s next.”

By Maddy Crowell


Ludi Labille shows off a poster for the upcoming Boeung Kak ArtFestival

Another chapter in the neighborhood’s cultural renaissance

A NewCanvas ForBoeung Kak

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K

han Yunis, Palestinian

Territories (AFP) – In

the Gaza Strip, where

residents face a daily

truggle to survive, animals athe Khan Yunis zoo are dying

every week and the tiger hasn’t

eaten for days.

Of hundreds of animals

bought for the zoo’s 2007

opening, the only survivors are

he last deer of its herd, a pelican,

an ostrich, two porcupines

and the tiger -- hungry yet still

majestic.

All the other cages are empty

and overgrown, while a thick

tench lingers in the air. Dusty

cats weave in and out of the

chipped, green bars of the cages

as a puppy howls in its pen.

Now, after years of effort,

zoo owner Mohammed Aweda

s admitting defeat. He plans toell the tiger and the rest of the

animals and close the zoo after

eeing his dreams fail.

The tiger “has not eaten meat

R e u t e r s

R e u t e r s

By Sarah Benhaidafor four days,” Aweda tells AFP

during a visit to the deserted

zoo.

“The food costs 250 Israeli

shekels ($63) per day,” Aweda

says. “I have not managed to

earn that amount from zoo visits

in one year.” When it first opened,

families thronged to the

2,000-square-metre Khan

Yunis zoo in the south of the

Palestinian enclave to see

eagles, lions, the tiger, deer,

pelicans and even crocodiles

for just three shekels.

But between 2008 and 2014,

the Gaza Strip, ruled by the

Palestinian Islamist movement

Hamas, has experienced three

wars with Israel.

The last conflict, in the

summer of 2014, killed 2,251Gazans, the majority of them

civilians, and 73 Israelis,

including 67 soldiers, according

to the United Nations.

The animals, too, were

caught up in Israeli bombing,

with 80 killed according to

Aweda.

After the conflict “I waited

for days before entering and

the smell of death was strong. I

found carcasses everywhere.”

An open-air cemetery

Israel maintains a crippling

blockade of the Palestinian

enclave and with little in

the way of a local economy

Gaza’s residents simply don’t

have any money left to spend on

going to the zoo.

Inside, a stench emerges

from a cage where a barely

legible sign tells visitors to

respect the cleanliness of the

premises.Dessicated bodies of

crocodiles and a lion lie in the

sun, surrounded by the bones of

other animals.

The weather is fine, but the

zoo seems more like an open-

air cemetery than a place for joy.

Two other zoos in Gaza are in

similar states.

School bus driver Tamer al-

Nirab says dozens of children

used to visit the zoo every day

but now “nobody can afford it”.

Eighty percent of Gaza’s

population are reliant on

international aid, according to

the UN. At its peak, the zoo had 60

stocked cages, with Aweda and

his 13 family members living off

the profits.

But now they have taken up

other jobs just to try to obtain

enough food for the animals.

“Some of my brothers

became drivers, others have

found employment in small

businesses,” says Aweda,

standing in front of the cage

where the 180-kilogramme

(400-pound), eight-year-old

tiger paces.

To obtain the tiger was

a mammoth effort, hesays, explaining that it was

transported “from Senegal to

Egypt, then from Sinai to Gaza

through a tunnel.”

He is now hoping to sell the

beast for $30,000. After that,

Aweda says, he will sell the land,

and the small zoo of Khan Yunis

will be no more.

Palestinian Mohammad Oweida, a zoo owner, shows stuffed animalsthat died during the 2014 war

A tiger is seen inside an enclosure at a zoo in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

School busdriver Tamer al-

Nirab says doz-ens of childrenused to visit the zoo everyday but now “nobody canafford it.

IN GAZA ZOO,empty cages andlonely animals asclosure looms

IN GAZA ZOO,empty cages andlonely animals asclosure looms

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CabaretBackstage at

Cambodia's first andonly ladyboy show

A dancer walks onstage for the openingnumber of the Fridaynight performance

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an Elizabethan period drama.

“It's her first time doing this

dance, so she's a little nervous,”

Panngoen explains.

Nervous or not, Belle goes

through her dance routine with

the coquettish grace of a pro

while lip synching to a Japaneselove song. As the curtains

close, she blows the imaginary

audience a kiss, to the applause

of her fellow dancers in the front

row.

Panngoen learned by

dancing in cabaret shows in

her hometown of Bangkok,

where she had performed since

the age of 18. Bangkok, an

international destination for

gender reassignment surgery.

has dozens of ladyboy cabarets

with names like Calypso and

Playhouse. In Cambodia thesecabarets are about as common

as hockey rinks.

In 2012 owner Wichit

Thianthongdee decided to

bring Bangkok-style cabaret to

Cambodia, building the theater

and recruiting a starting group

of dancers from Thailand. When

Panngoen first saw these job ads,

she said she wasn't interested. “Ithought, 'Why would I want to

go to Cambodia?'” she said.

Without her knowledge,

Panngoen's best friend grabbed

a copy of her headshot and sent

it to Rosana Broadway. She was

surprised to receive the job offer

from the Cambodian cabaret,

but grudgingly accepted. “At first

I didn't want to go to Cambodia,”

she said. “But now I really love,

love, love it here.”

She said planning the show

and teaching the ladyboy

lifestyle to her young protégéeshas become her life's goal.

“Every day I'm waiting for 4

o'clock [when rehearsals begin]

because I miss everybody,” she

said. “When I think about my

life, I'm very happy that I ended

up here. All of my experience – I

want to share it with all of them.”

Panngoen certainly has

plenty of experience to share.

She has learned not only how to

organize the Rosana's intricate

dance numbers, but also how to

spot a good potential dancer in

The curtains rise on

a glittering set and

the first chord of

Frank Valli's “Can't

Take My Eyes Off You” blasts

hrough the theater. The stage

s all tight sequined dresses

and white suits, as one of the

emale dancers – statuesque and

decked with feathers – lip synchswith the music:

“You're just too good to be

rue.”

This line is a perfect opener,

because many of the women

performing on-stage at Siem

Reap's Rosana Broadway

cabaret show are indeed “too

good to be true.” Most of the

tarlets at Rosana are “ladyboys,”

o use the term popularized in

Thailand, where cabaret shows

ike this draw huge audiences.

Every night these 76 Rosana

dancers perform in the neon-it theater off National Road 6,

which can seat an audience of

842 at $30 a ticket.

Ladyboy revues may

be popular in neighboring

Thailand, but since opening

hree years ago Rosana Broadway

has been the only show of its

kind in Cambodia. Popular with

Korean and Chinese tourists,

t is still trying to draw more

ocals and Western tourists

o its own surreal, gender-

bending brand of cabaret. The

manager, Oak Sambo, said thatCambodian audiences were at

irst unfamiliar with the idea

of ladyboy cabaret stars. “Five

years ago the Cambodian people

didn't have their hearts open to

ladyboys, and didn't know about

them,” she said.

It's not surprising that

audiences might find the show

strange. For a viewer used to

the sedate pace of a traditional

Apsara dance, a Rosana

Broadway performance feels like

a fever dream.

Sets and dance styles change

with dizzying speed, from atraditional Hanuman dance set

in a deep jungle, to an intricate

routine set in a Chinese imperial

throne room complete with

giant dragons, to a hip hop

number on a glitzy set that looks

straight out of a music video by

K-Pop star Psy.

The dancers' genders change

just as quickly as the musical

styles. One performer will sport

a Clark Gable mustache in one

dance, and a pastel dress and

peacock feathers in the next.

Sometimes the gender swappingeven happens in a single

performance, with one dancer

wearing a double-sided costume

– Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

for the price of one.

Though some of the

performances are slightly

raunchy, Rosana never veers

into burlesque. Most ladyboy

cabaret shows in Thailand play

up the sex, but Rosana focuses

on dance and spectacle. “It's

not a sexy show,” said Sambo.

“It's a show of different kinds of

traditional dance.”Sambo is right that the show

is not particularly “sexy,” but it is

only “traditional” in the loosest

sense of the word. Apsara dance

blends into a fan dance, which

blends into slapstick comedy,

which blends into K-Pop. Before

each routine, a disembodied

voice announces the country of

origin: “Ladies and gentlemen,

presenting a traditional dance

from Vietnam.”

If the action onstage is

surreal, backstage is even more

so. Male dancers in Angkor-

era armor rush past ladyboys wearing flamboyant blue

gowns. Dragon sculptures loom

overhead next to silver cloth

backdrops, ready to be rolled

into place for the next song. In

the dark wings of the theater,

dancers practice their moves,

somehow balancing under the

weight of their towering feather

headdresses.

Just a few months ago, some

of these dancers were waiters

or fruit vendors in Siem Reap.

Many were recruited for the

cabaret thanks to the keen eyeof Thai choreographer Kanoklak

Panngoen.

Panngoen is the heart of the

show – managing everything

from dancer recruitment to

choreography to set design and

lighting. Slim and graceful at 43,

she walks around the set in a

yellow tank top, demonstrating

moves for her dancers and

occasionally shouting directions

in a voice that is an octave lower

than one would expect but never

harsh or severe.

Panngoen pauses to talkto one performer, Belle, in a

flouncy pink dress that looks

like it was pulled directly from

When Ithink aboutmy life, I'm

very happy that Iended up here. Allof my experience– I want to share itwith all of them.


Ny, 18, gets ready to go on stage.

By Jonathan Cox

Namwan, 28, in the dressing room.

CONTINUE PAGE 10

F

a b i e n M o u r e t

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Conference: Archaeology inFrance

@French Institute, 216 Street 184 A presentation by DominiqueGarcia, President of theFrench National Institute forPreventive ArchaeologicalResearch.

EXHIBITIONS

PORTRAITS@Show Box, 11 Street 330

Show Box invites all regionalartists to contribute theirtalents to the next group art

exhibit: “Portraits: an explora-tion into the oldest form ofself-reflection”. Artists can

submit their pieces (prefer-ably two or more) to Show

Box by March 27. [email protected] formore information.

ONGOING

36 Views of Phnom Penh@The Plantation, 28 Street 184

Amateur of “Barang archi-tecture” and admirer of VannMolyvann as well as Khmer

modernism, Laurent drawsheritage buildings that arebeing demolished or will be.

CAFÉ ELEPHANT@French Institute, 218 Street 184

Artwork by cartoonist JiriSliva

GERMAN-CAMBODIAN ARt@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:

The German artist AlfredBanze presents “2.5 Street“,

Together with students andlocal artists he created large

drawings and video clips withthe theme: Rise and fall of aCommunity Art Space.

SORROWS AND STRUGGLES:WOMEN‘S EXPERIENCE OFFORCED MARRIAGE DURINGTHE KHMER ROUGE REGIME

@Tuol Sleng Museum (Building A)

The exhibition is based on

survivor oral histories re-counting personal experienc-es of forced marriages during

the Khmer Rouge regime.

THE ALTERED MIRROR: RE-FLECTIONS FROM GUATEMALA

AND CAMBODIA@Bophana Center 64 Street 200,Okhna Men

Erick Gonzalez, renownedFranco-Guatemalan artistresident in Phnom Penh since

2015, exhibits his latest cre-

ations consisting in objects,installations and paintings.

FILMS

Thu, March 10

@Bophana Center, 200 OknhaMenRITES OF PASSAGE (2013, 80MINS), 6:30 PM:

A feature length drama made

collaboratively with youngpeople who dip below thesurface of their often tough

exteriors to reveal what is go-

EVENTS

Thu, March 10

NO PROBLEM DISCO@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172

DJ Jack Malipan playing

Sexy Funky Disco HouseURBAN THURSDAYS@SHARKY BAR, 126 STREET130

DJ Niko Yu

TRIPPY THURSDAYS –WONDER WOMEN SPECIAL@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:

DJanes AJA KURATABANZAI (Japan) & SAOSOPHEAK (Cambodia).

BINGO

@Show Box, 11 Street 330, 8PM:

$1 entry per game, with cashand beer prizes.

SWING DANCING CLASS@Cloud, 32 Street 9, 6:30-7:30PM:

Monthly swing dancing class,$4 for the class, including 1drink. Social dancing is free.

KARAOKE NIGHT@Eluvium Lounge, 205A Street19, 7-10 PM:

Fri, March 11

@The Oyster Restaurant, Hi-mawari Hotel, 6-10 PM Fridayand Saturday

A buffet spread featuring

fresh seafood, barbequedmeats, local Khmer delights

and international favorites.$21++ per adult, $10.50++per child between 6 – 12years old. Call to 023 214555 ext 63 to reserve.

LIVE MUSIC@Sharky Bar, 126 Street 130, 9PM

Soundtrek Project, an11-piece French brass band,puts on its final weekend ofshows in Cambodia

OSKAR CLUB #3, @Oskar Bistro, 159 SisowathQuay

DJs Nora Haidee, DJ Dona-belle, DJ Devi Vanhon

PULSE THE HOUSE@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172

DJ Shaman & Special guestsDr Wah Wah & Bojan fromKimchi Collective.

ACOUSTIC FRIDAYS@Farm to Table, 16 Street 360,

6-8 PM:Mathias Nunberg performs,2 for 1 beer & wine from 4-7PM

DJ PARTY – FLUID@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard, 9 PM:

DJs MOUDY, DSN, BLAZIAN+ MORE

Sat, March 12

LIVE MUSIC@125 Street 130, 9 PM

Batbangers (Khmer Rock)

BOEUNG KAK ART FESTIVAL@Boeung Kak

Two-day street festival withmore than 45 artists andbands. All proceeds go to

benefit

SATURDAY TECH LOUNGE@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172

With DJ Flo, Rob Bianche &Special guest DJ Wedenski.

BACK TO THE ‘50S, ‘60S, ‘70S,‘80S

@Eluvium Lounge, 205A street19, 8:00 PM-10:00 PMFavorite songs and romanticballads from the 50s, 60s,70s and 80s

SOUNDTREK PROJECT@Cloud, 32 Street 9, 8:30 PM:

The final Cambodian showfor the 11-member brassband from France

CAMBODIAN FUSION DJ PARTY @Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard, 9 PM:

W/ MUTE SPEAKER & DjaneSAO SOPHEAK

Sun, March 13

HOUSE SENSATION@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172

DJ Shaman playing DeepFunky House music.

Mon, March 14

PULSATION@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172

Rob Bianche Playing TechFunk Breaks

Tue, March 15

@Pontoon Pulse, 80 Street 172 Alan Ritchie dropping old-school Hip Hop, Soul Funkand B-Boy breaks.

Wed, March 16

OPEN MIC@Show Box, 11 Street 330, 8 PM:

DO WE HAVE YOPlease email all details to James.redd

THE GYPSIES10 AM-11:30 PM, 59 Street 450,

Toul Tom Poung

The only thing missing from The

Gypsies’ Spanish vibe is a leg of

smoked pig. A cozy neighborhood

pub, whose low ceiling and friendly

Hot Spotowner only add to the intimate vibe, the

recently opened bar is a prime spot to

chat with strangers. With tasty Europe-

an snacks and reasonably priced drinks,

this bar is flling the gap that Russian

Market residents have complained

about for years: the lack of good water-

ing holes. Closing before midnight, it

isn’t intended to be a late night hub,

but it’s a perfect place for neighbors

to come together over a beer. While

downstairs is cozy, the upstairs is like a

pimped out college hangout. There’s a

nice pool table and bucket chairs in an

alcove overlooking the otherwise quiet

residential street.

For this month’s Friday night buffet

at Intercontinental’s Regency Café,chef Erick Cruz has shifted to South

America, providing an authentic

Brazilian Rodizio experience.

Though Rodizios are known most

for meats, this version features wealth of options for diners lookin

for fresh and light ingredients.

Highlights from the first cour

Advertorial

One of the 10 slicedhigh-end sliced meatson offer at the BrazilianRodizio buffet.

Brazilian Rodizio at Interc

8 WEEKLY the

Phnom Penh

Around Town



9/12

ing on inside.

@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:A RIVER CHANGES COURSE2013, 83 MINS), 4 PM:

The story of three families liv-ing in contemporary Cambo-dia as they face hard choices

forced by rapid development.

Step It Up Cambodia – Film Fes-ival Day 3, 6:30 PM:Chea Sokyou’s short TheRide explores the bonds of

sisterhood, with Q&A. BinMolyka’s It Burned Me,about a survivor of acid

violence, follows. MatthewWatson’s investigation of the

sex industry, Virginity Trade,finishes the evening.

Fri, March 11

@French Institute, 216 Street84Kissed a Girl (2015, 98 mins),

5 PM: Jeremie wakes up alongside

a pretty woman. But it’sthe first time for Jeremie,

normally he prefers his futurehusband Antoine.

Pickpocket (1959, 75 mins, FRw/ EN subtitles), 7 PM:

Michel is released from jailafter serving a sentence forthievery. His mother dies and

he resorts to pickpocketingas a means of survival.

@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:am Haiti (2014, 66 mins), 4 PM: A portrait of Haiti, and a vin-dication of the African roots

of the country

Anomalisa (2015, 90 mins), 7PM:

A man crippled by the

mundanity of his life experi-ences something out of the

ordinary. Charlie Kaufman’sfirst foray into stop-motionanimation

Sat, March 12

@Sa Sa Bassac, 18E2 Sot-hearos Boulevard

From The Heart of Brahma(2014, 28 mins, English w/ KHsubtitles), 6-7:30 PM, with aconversation with the artistand director:

The short doc follows

Prumsodun Ok, a Cam-bodian-American dancer

and choreographer whosepractice seeks to revive andrevitalize Cambodian classi-

cal dance, and exposes theartist’s mission to open dia-logues around tradition and

gay love, and to make his

classical art form inclusive.

@French Institute, 216 Street184

Girafada (2013, 85 mins, AR w/French subtitles), 10 AM:

Yacine is a veterinarian inthe last zoo of Palestine. In

order to save a female gi-raffe, who cannot live alone,Yacine needs to find her a

mate. But the only zoo whocan help him is in Tel-Aviv.

I Kissed a Girl (2015, 98 mins,FR w/ EN subtitles), 5 PM:

Jeremie wakes up along-

VENT LISTED?mertimeskh.com by Monday at 5pm

side a pretty woman. But

it’s the first time for Jere-mie, normally he prefers hisfuture husband Antoine.

@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:Enemies of the People (2009,

93 mins), 4 PM:

A personal journey into theheart of darkness by a Khmer

journalist, whose family waswiped out in the Killing Fields.

Inside the Belly of a Dragon(2015, 75 mins), 7 PM:

A remarkable voyage of

discovery and recoveryfor an Irish clown, HughBrown. Followed by a Q&A

with co-director Ian Wig-gins.

@Bophana Center, 200 OknhaMenSinn Sisamouth (2001, 45

mins, KH version), 5 PM: A portrait of the famous

singer.

Sun, March 13

@Meta House, #37 SothearosBoulevard:

Giovanni’s Island (2014, 102

mins), 4 PM:

Director NishikuboMizuho’s animated ode to

post-war survival

Short docs about KhmerRouge Legacy, 7 PM:

Scars of Cambodia (2014,

30 mins) features a key de-vice, or rather lack of one:There is no speech.

The Conscience of NhemEm (2008, 26 min) follows

the story of the S-21 prisonphotographer.

Cambodian Cinema, 8.15 PM:

Featuring two Khmer- American films by GregCahill, The Golden Voice

(2006, 25 min) and TwoShadows (2012, 94 min).

Mon, March 14

Tue, March 15


The Image Revolution (2014, 81 mins), 4PM:

About the birth of the inno-vative US company “Image

Comics” by former “Mar-vel” employees 20 years

ago.

Dam Documentary Night, 7 PM:

Mekong (2012, 52 min) ex-

amines the on-going struggleof local communities againstdam construction on the

upper Mekong. Dam Nation

(2014, 94 min) envisions anaturalist-friendly future in

which rivers are once moreallowed to flow freely.

Wed, March 16


Bonne Nuit Papa (2014, 95mins), 4 PM:

Tracing her father’s foot-steps, the German filmmakerimmerses herself deeper

and deeper into the historyof Cambodia’s ideologicalwars.

Sierra Leone’’s Refugee AllStars (2005, 80 mins), 7 PM:

Following Africa’s mostinspirational band.

AMY (2014, 128 mins), 8.30 PM:

The story of Amy Winehouse inher own words, featuringunseen archival footage and

unheard tracks.

A d v e r t i s e w i t h T

h e W e e k l y n o w !

C o n t a c t M a r y C l a v e l t o b o o k y o u r s p a c e

T e l : 0 1 0

6 7 8 3 2 4

included a Salada de

Frango, a fresh chicken

salad with grapes and

potatoes with a touch of

mayonnaise and mustard

and the wonderful Salada

de Morangos, an unusual

combination of fresh salad

with strawberries and wild

mushrooms.

Alongside a passion

fruit caipirinha, which

is $6 per glass or $10

for bottomless cockails,

this is the perfect way to

start a meal. Next up is

the Assado, a dish with

brisket, potatoes, carrots,

and onions. Throughout the

restaurant staff bring aroundum cuts of meat, which are

tableside.

ese include boneless lamb

leg, chicken breast wrapped with

bacon and top sirloin, among many

other options. Having already

eyed the dessert display, I stopped

myself from indulging in more than

one helping of the assado and the

cuvee.

Alongside a mint caipirinha,

I tried the lemon meringue, a

passion fruit mousse and mango

sorbet. These were all divine and

all made in house–as is everything,

including a fresh baked assortment

of breads. Try the rodizio every

Friday evening in March and check

back for upcoming buffet specials

in the café. Prices are $28++ per

person, plus $10++ for bottomless

caipirinha.

Available every Friday night in March from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at

296 Mao Tse Toung Boulevard. For

more information call 023 424 888.

ntinental’s Regency Café

9 WEEKLY the

Phnom Penh

Around Town



10/12

the unlikeliest places. “I saw one

boy at a restaurant,” she said. “He

was carrying food to a customer

and I thought – he has a good walk.

He has movement!”

Panngoen took the busboy

with the good walk aside for a

conversation. “He said he wantedto be a lady, but he didn't know

how,” Panngoen said. “So I said

come, follow me. The first day

the other dancers laughed at him

because of his curly hair and dark

skin... But he wanted to work in

Rosana. He wanted to be a girl.

Now she is a superstar.”

This superstar is the 22-year

old Belle (the wearer of the flouncy

pink dress) and she has been with

the revue for three years now. “All

my life I wanted to be a beautiful

girl,” Belle said, “I feel very happy

now to be able to perform.”Like many other dancers,

Belle – who was originally named

Nao Narith – started as a costume

worker backstage at Rosana

before getting her moment in

the spotlight. Panngoen helped

her not just to learn to dance,

but also helped her through the

difficult transformation process of

hormone therapy and surgery.

“I train them not only for

dance, I train them for life, how to

live as a ladyboy,” said Panngoen.

“I teach everything – how to take

care of their skin, how to take

hormones, everything.” Rosana

helps the dancers find skilled

surgeons in Bangkok who can

give them breast implants or facialsurgery.

To put the “lady” in ladyboy,

Rosana's dancers can spend

as long as one and a half hours

applying makeup backstage. The

time is well spent – even from good

seats at the front of the theater, it is

not always easy to tell male from

female.

Despite her accomplishments,

Panngoen was humble about

the quality of the show. “It's not

perfect – not the same as theladyboys in Thailand,” she said,

pointing out that finding ladyboys

with long, beautiful legs has been

a challenge. “Expectations are

a little lower in Cambodia,” she

explained.

If the show did not quite meet

Thai standards, the audience

didn't care. Mostly Chinese and

Korean tourists, they clapped

along, waved to the dancers, and

gasped audibly when Gangnam

Style played. Most were so eager

to record the spectacle that they

flagrantly broke the rule againstfilming the show, raising their

smartphones to shoot video.

For young Cambodian

men who dream of becoming

women, there are few chances

to be the object of this kind of

attention. “Rosana is the dream of

Cambodian ladyboys,” Panngoen

said, “because there is nothing

else... If the Khmer ladyboys didn't

have Rosana what would they do?

If they wanted to be a lady – to have

long hair and a dress – they would

have nowhere else to work.”

Rosana gives dancers the

chance both to earn a living and to

live out their gender identity, even

if they come from poor families. “If

you want to be a beautiful woman

you will spend a lot of money,”

said Ms. Sambo, “but a lot of them

[the dancers] come from a poor

family. Now they can earn a little

money...they can afford makeup,

they can afford a motorbike.”

The dancers at Rosana have

the chance to be more than just

performers. Some have also

gotten desk jobs, the kind of job

that several performers said is

usually off limits to ladyboys,because of a common prejudice in

Cambodia that transsexual people

are uneducated.

One of the dancers, Ker Mao

Rath, who goes by Mong, used

to be a dancer in a bar, until she

was recruited by Rosana. Now

Mong, who speaks Chinese, Thai,

and English, works a second job

as a sales assistant at the cabaret.

'Rosana gave me the opportunity

to do office work,” she said. “In

other companies they wouldn't

accept us [ladyboys], even though

we can do the work. They dislikedladyboys.”

She said her two salaries

have made her life better. This

is evident in at least one way:

she has made enough to buy an

iPad, on which she plays a game

of Mortal Kombat in the makeup

room as she waits for the night's

show to begin.

An hour later, Mong is

onstage in sequins and feathers

at the end of her dance. She

steps backwards as the curtains

close in front of her. Just before

the curtains close, she blows akiss to the audience, and the

lights go out.

FROM PAGE 07

Choreographer Kanoklak Panngoen watches Belle practice her routine during rehearsals before the evening show.

Emm, 36, puts on her headdress backstage. And, 21, puts on her makeup backstage.

F a b i e n M o u r

e t

In othercompa-nies they

wouldn't accept us,even though we cando the work. Theydisliked ladyboys



10 WEEKLY the

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11/12

Sophorn Panna

was born poor in

1988 in a small

house in Takeo

province. He described his

ather—drafted into the

Cambodian military at 18

during the Khmer Rouge

imes—as “lost” by the

ime he was old enough

o start remembering him.

Sophorn’s mother raised

him and his seven siblings

on her own. By the timehe was 14, Sophorn was

working. His first job was

picking the young leaves

off tamarind trees to bring

o a local market for sale.

He picked palm fruit for

a few months and was

excellent at climbing trees.

“Then I was a

isherman,” he says. “In

he nighttime, during the

ight season, sitting by

a small river with a net.

Cambodia was different

hen.” He’d come homeearly in the morning

carrying 10 kilograms

of fish. Then, he would

get himself ready to

go to school. He was

By Michael Light

Sophorn Panna mixes coffeebeans at Feel Good Coffee

discouraged first from

attending high school

and then college, but

did both anyway. With

financial help from one

of his sisters back home,

he’d eventually move

to Battambang to study

information technology

and finance at the

university there. Living

with an aunt in the city, he

never stopped working—

when he wasn’t in class he was cleaning her house,

or working as an admin

at the school, or picking

up shifts at a restaurant,

which is where Sophorn

first made a cup of coffee.

Now, at 28, as the

head roaster at Phnom

Penh’s Feel Good Coffee,

he is one of the most

important figures in

Cambodia’s burgeoning

industry, a seminal part

of the promotion and

advancement of the qualityof the Kingdom’s coffee.

Feel Good, a self-

described social

enterprise, was established

in 2013 by industry

veterans Marc Adamson

and Jose Rivera—who

had previously worked

in coffee in the US, New

Zealand and Australia—

in hopes that it would

eventually develop into

a provider of sustainable

employment, education

and opportunity for its

Cambodian staff. In its

two years, the business,

which initially consisted

of a single cafe employingfive young Cambodians,

has grown into two cafes

with a combined staff of

thirteen—and even now

those spaces aren’t big

enough.

With clients

throughout the country—

from small coffee shops

to large hotels—the

demand for Feel Good’s

coffee is only growing;

this year they purchased

more green coffee beans,

the unroasted seeds ofcoffee cherries that after

being cleaned and sorted

and roasted and ground

become a cappuccino,

than ever before. And

although Sophorn admits

that the Cambodian coffee

industry is currently seeing

a period of rapid expansion

in step with the rest of

the growing economy,

he and Feel Good are far

less concerned about the

quantity of clients they

deliver beans to or the

number of customers that

trundle through the doors

of their shops. While those

things are important, sure, what Sophorn really cares

about is quality.

“When I was 18,” he

says, “I could not drink black

coffee without sugar. In

Cambodia, we drink coffee

when we meet with our

families, when we celebrate,

in the morning, at nighttime,

in our offices and at

funerals. The most popular

preparation is coffee with

sweet milk and ice.”

Most of that imported

coffee from Vietnam, heexplained, “tastes terrible.”

Coffee can pretty simply

be split into two literal

family trees—the Arabica

family, which is known for

its quality, and the Robusta

family, whose beans comes

from easily-cared-for trees

that generally end up being

freeze dried and packed

into containers of Nescafe.

A lot of the coffee being

bought and consumed by

Cambodians is Vietnamese

Robusta, which is easily

imported and costs nearly

nothing per kilogram—$6

at the lowest. For reference,

the world’s most expensivegreen coffees, generally

belonging to the Arabica

family’s Gesha variety

grown in Panama, can cost

upwards of 36 times that.

Part of Feel Good’s mission

is to source all its green

beans from Southeast

Asia. They import high

quality coffees from places

in Thailand, Laos and

Vietnam. But, as Sophorn

explains, Feel Good is also

committed to promoting

Cambodian-grown coffee.To learn that a coffee

crop even exists in the

country is surprising

to some, but as it turns

out there are quite a few

farmers in

Mondulkiri

g r o w i n g

a hybrid

C a t i m o r

( A r a b i c a )

variety. The

majority is

bought up by

large-scaledistributors

in Phnom

Penh, but the

coffee also shows up as 10

percent of Feel Good’s

signature blend, which is

otherwise made up of Lao

and Thai coffees.

“The main thing is that

in Cambodia, there is an

environment conducive

to growing coffee—there

are waterfalls and high

elevation and lots of shade

for the trees to grow in. We

hope that buying and using

coffee from Mondulkiri will promote Cambodian

coffee as a whole, and

encourage farmers to pay

attention to the quality of

the coffee they’re growing,”

Sophorn says.

But the representation

of Cambodia’s crop doesn’t

end within the country’s

borders. Last year, Sophorn

traveled to Kuala Lumpur to

compete in an international

barista competition.

Stacked against a strong

field of competitors, hehighlighted the Cambodian

notes in his coffee by

serving it alongside dark

chocolate—which the

drink itself carries deep

notes of—and tamarind.

He was docked few points

by judges, and although he

ultimately received second

place it was a major victory

for Cambodian coffee.

“Since 2008, they’ve

opened 700 new

restaurants and cafes in

Phnom Penh,” Sophornsays. “Coffee around the

world is big. In Cambodia

it’s getting bigger.”

THE HUMBLERoots of Cambodian

Coffee

11 WEEKLY the

Phnom Penh

Flavors



12/12

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The Weekly - March 10