Diamond Island

Davy Chou's 2016 film follows Bora, eighteen, who leaves his village for work in Phnom Penh. A modern island is being built for the rich and Bora works on the site; there he finds his elder brother Solei, who disappeared five years earlier. The film presents the thing being built as a promise. The island offered as Cambodia's future is a place the workers will not enter, and the nights Bora spends there are the most concrete form of that gap. The cinematography makes neon and the colour of night decisive; the site is grey by day and an entirely different place after dark. The cast is non-professional and the speech natural. Rather than tying the narrative to social criticism, Chou keeps it in feeling. Who it's for: those who like contemporary Southeast Asian cinema and narratives of urban transformation. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a defined plot; the film moves on atmosphere.