After originally studying interior design, Cambodian Danech San turned to filmmaking, working with Anti-Archive on “Three Wheels” (Kavich Neang, 2015) as production manager, and “Diamond Island” (Davy Chou, 2016) as casting assistant and assistant production manager. Her debut film, “A Million Years”, world premiered at the 2018 Busan International Film Festival. It subsequently was named Best Southeast Asian Short Film at the 2018 Singapore International Film Festival and won the Arte Short Film Award at the 2019 Internationales Kurz film Festival Hamburg. (source: Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival). For her second film, she cooperates again with Davy Chou, who handles the role of producer along Daniel Mattes, while as production designer, we find another Cambodian filmmaker, Sreylin Meas.
“Sunrise in My Mind” is screening at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
The story takes place in a beauty salon, where the protagonist, Pich, is washing the hair of a female client under the sound of Boney M's “Hands Up”, the aquamarine tapestry on the wall, and posters showing various types of eyebrows. Her mind is obviously elsewhere and her boss asks her to be quicker, on which she replies with a resigned apathy. Another client is watching a movie on her phone where an actress is arguing with a filmmaker about the role of women and cinema in general. The music soon changes to something more local, and the discussion between the co-workers turns towards a previous meal in an expensive restaurant, and a young man who seems to like Pich, although she acts towards him with indifference, at least in front of her co-workers. The setting then changes to the aforementioned young man, who is revealed to be a delivery guy named Lay, although one who is also different from his colleagues, as a scene where he stands a bit away from them while they talk crudely about women, showcases. A bit later, and although it is nighttime, he visits the parlor asking to have his hair washed. An almost surrealistic scene where blue tints fill the screen and an aquarium becomes the point of focus, leads to the conclusion of the flirt, at least for now…
The first thing one will notice is that the film is visually impressive. From the set design to the overall coloring, the framing, the changes of the camera's distances from its subjects, courtesy of DP Jeremiah Overman, all point toward an eye candy, of a quality very rarely met in shorts. The same applies to the surreal scene, when reality and dream blur in a way that leaves the answer to the viewer, while the ending frame is probably the most impressive moment in the movie.
Regarding the context, San seems to focus on the mundanity of everyday life, particularly in jobs as the one Pich and Lay keep, and how romance can be an escape from reality that could potentially lead to happiness. Moreover, he poster of different eyebrows and their respective eyes, most of which seem to belong to western women, could be perceived as a remark on the standards of female beauty that are essentially imposed to all women. The movie shown on the smartphone also seems like a pointed comment on art-house filmmaking, which is presented in rather intelligent (and cheeky) fashion).
Madeza Chhem as Pich is also quite good, communicating her thoughts and feelings in laconic but rather eloquent way, while her “secret smile” is one of the most memorable moments of the movie.
“Sunrise in My Mind” is an excellent short, visually impressive and contextually intelligent, that also shows that San definitely has what it takes to move on to features, particularly with such a crew around her.
