Word: angkor
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...didn't notice the bridge until we were almost upon it. We came out of a cumulus of red dust to find ourselves whizzing between massive stone balustrades over a yawning gorge. At 85 meters, Spean Praptos is the longest surviving bridge from the Angkor era. "That bridge has been standing more than 800 years," said Mony, who works for the government's conservation authority, Apsara. "My ancestors built roads and bridges that were just as impressive in their way as any of the temples...
...anymore. Nowadays, faced with the discomfort of these roads and bridges, most tourists limit themselves to two or three days exploring Angkor Wat and other sites within easy reach of Siem Reap and its proliferating hotels. If your idea of Cambodian magic is a scrum for vantage points, against the deflating sound of clicking cameras and revving tour coaches, and curtailed by the need to be back at the hotel bar by nightfall, then fine. But if you want to leave the tourist pack behind, you have no choice but to hit the awful dirt...
...Given Cambodia's reputation for being politically dysfunctional, Dillon had surprisingly little difficulty securing permits and permissions from the local Culture Ministry. The country's cultural czars were irked a couple of years ago when Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which was partly shot in Angkor Wat, mistakenly showed people wearing Vietnamese hats, not Cambodian ones?an unwelcome reminder of Cambodia's historic enemies. But besides trimming a few ultra-violent scenes, Dillon was required to do little more than translate the script for curious officials. "I was afraid of censorship, but they seemed more concerned that the movie was truthful...
...atmosphere of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia: the land-mine casualties, the lawless streets and the gentle Buddhist spirit that provides whatever strength remains in the country. "I didn't want to make a film that was like a postcard," says Dillon. "That's why I didn't shoot at Angkor?you can see that on the Travel Channel." Instead, Dillon's Cambodia is a post-apocalyptic vision, haunted by ghosts both living and dead. For the first-time director, it's these living ghosts that are the most riveting. "It's about dangerous people who are desperate...
...extensively archived in survivors' accounts, scholarly histories and documentary films. Yet the gruesome orgy of self-vivisection carried out in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1978 left behind far fewer records. History in Cambodia remains intertwined with legend, as it has since the classical era of Angkor, and the regime's reign of terror was hideously efficient, leaving very few survivors to give witness to the inner workings of the machinery of death...