Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers

Rithy Panh's film focuses on the fates of Cambodian prostitutes living and working in Phnom Penh, a city they have ended up in due to destitution or a wrong choice in life. Most of them are full of both regret and hopelessness regarding the future – there is no way to return to the past, a concept encapsulated in the picture's title. The film is far from explicit, but at the same time discusses the relationship between the bodily and spiritual sides of the human being. The camera rarely leaves the prostitutes' brothel, overseen by an authoritarian madame, and focuses on the inner lives and what could be termed the spiritual deaths of the protagonists. Through the testimonies of the prostitutes a picture emerges of the values of Cambodian society following the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Panh also dealt with this subject in his earlier picture S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, which won the Director's Prize and the Václav Havel Award at the 2004 One World festival.