Film

Funan

Funan is a 2018 animated feature film by Denis Do about a Cambodian mother searching for her young son under the Khmer Rouge.[1][2] Do, a French director and screenwriter of French, Chinese and Cambodian heritage, based the story on his mother's memories of life under the Khmer Rouge.[3][1]

Synopsis

Animated figures in dark clothes bend over young rice plants in a flooded field under a blue sky with palm trees.
Still from Funan showing workers in a rice field.

The film opens in Phnom Penh, where Chou and her husband, Khuon, live a modern city life.[4] In April 1975 the Khmer Rouge take the city and force the family out.[5][6] During the evacuation, their four-year-old son, Sovanh, and his grandmother are separated from the family.[7][3] The family is taken to a commune, stripped of its possessions and made to work to exhaustion on little food. Chou works in the fields day and night under guard.[7][3] Through it all, she is set on bringing her family back together.[6]

Chou never stops looking for Sovanh, and the story ends on the Thai border.[5] Much of the violence in the film happens off screen, heard in gunfire and seen in the reactions of the characters.[1] The characters are drawn with realistic Cambodian features.[4]

Production and credits

Do made the film after nearly 20 years of research into the Khmer Rouge era.[1] Chou is based on his mother.[1][8] His mother's stories and the testimony of other survivors shaped the screenplay.[4] Do and Magali Pouzol wrote it, with Elise Trinh.[2] Do and the art director, Michael Crouzat, carried out research and fieldwork for the look of the film.[2] Thibault Kientz Agyeman composed the music, and Laurent Prim edited the film.[3]

Bérénice Bejo voices Chou and Louis Garrel voices Khuon.[8] The other voices include Colette Kieffer as Nay, Aude-Laurence Clermont Biver as Chan, Brice Montagne as Meng, Hervé Sogne as Virak, Maxime Baudoin as Hout, Tom Trouffier as Tuch, Lila Lacombe as Lili, Emilie Marié as Peuv, Thierry Jahn as Sok and Franck Sasonoff as the Khmer Rouge chief.[9][8]

Sébastien Onomo, David Grumbach, Annemie Degryse, Louise Génis Cosserat and Justin Stewart produced the film.[3] Les Films d'Ici led the production, with co-producers including BAC Cinéma, Lunanime, ithinkasia and WebSpider Productions.[4] It is a French-language co-production of France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Cambodia.[2][10]

Release and reception

Funan won the Cristal for a Feature Film at the 42nd Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2018.[10][6][8] Its North American premiere came at the Animation Is Film Festival in Hollywood, held October 19 to 21, 2018, where it won the jury's Grand Prize and the Audience Award.[11] At the second Emile Awards in Lille in December 2018, Do and Pouzol won Best Writing in a Feature Film, and Nicolas Leroy, Michel Schillings and Nicolas Tran Trong won Best Sound Design in a Feature Film.[12]

It opened in France in March 2019, and Lumière released it in Belgium on April 24, 2019.[2][10] In the United States, GKIDS gave it a limited release from June 7, 2019, in its French-language version.[13] Rotten Tomatoes listed 93 percent positive reviews from 28 critics, with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. Metacritic gave it 79 out of 100 from nine critics, which it rates as generally favorable.[7][9]

Funan was the closing film of the 2019 Cambodia Town Film Festival in Long Beach, California. It screened on September 15, 2019, at 8 p.m. at the Art Theatre Long Beach, after the closing ceremony.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Polygon, Funan follows in the footsteps of Persepolis and Grave of the Fireflies (June 9, 2019)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Zippy Frames, Funan Review: Patience Makes Heroes (February 2, 2019)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2019 Official Selection: FUNAN (archived)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Community Events, 'Funan': A Cambodian Feature Animation (October 23, 2018)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Film Threat, Alex Saveliev, Funan (June 13, 2019)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 GKIDS, GKIDS and Shout! Factory Present "Funan" on Home Video (September 3, 2019)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Wikipedia, Funan (film)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 IMDb, Funan (2018)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Metacritic, Funan
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Les Grignoux, Funan (film sheet, in French)
  11. ↑ Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe, Denis Do's 'Funan' Wins Grand Prize, Audience Award at Second ANIMATION IS FILM Festival (October 23, 2018)
  12. ↑ Skwigly, Steve Henderson, The 2nd Emile Awards Announce Winners (December 9, 2018)
  13. ↑ The Numbers, Funan (2019)
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This page was last edited on 9 October 2026, at 06:03.