Rice People

A poor peasant family lives in Cambodia. Their living depends on a single rice harvest. The film follows one whole planting cycle. The work in the field never ends. Both the father and the mother work. Their daughters are with them. Then the father falls ill from a thorn in his foot. The wound turns septic. Before long he dies. The whole burden falls on the mother. She tries to carry the field and the children at once. The load is heavy and time is short. The family slowly comes apart. The film draws on a novel and on a real life. Peng Phan and Mom Soth appear in the hundred and twenty five minute film, a Cambodian, German, French and Swiss co-production Rithy Panh finished in 1994.