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Danech San

Danech San (1991, Cambodia) is a director and has worked in different production roles on a variety of TV shows and films. After originally studying interior design, 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.

Filmography

Sea within a Sea (2021), Sunrise in My Mind (2020), A Million Years (2018)

Through an expertly pitched blend of realistic fiction, Sunrise in My Mind shows a view of a beauty salon in Phnom Penh at night which sparkles like a jewel box. The patterned aquamarine wallpaper plays off of the many pink objects inside, including the shirt of the film’s protagonist Pich, a beautician whose mind is clearly elsewhere. Against the strains of a soul song from the early 1970s by Pan Ron, the co-workers’ conversation moves toward the guy who has a crush on Pich, to which she acts demure and with indifference (but also with a private smile to herself). But Lay, a deliveryman who rides a motorbike through the city at night, reliably shows up to the salon. After asking Pich to wash his hair, we witness a moment of intimacy, though it’s unclear whether this is real or imagined.

Run Time

14 mins
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