SYNOPSIS
1 – NEARI, a pretty young village girl, works as a nurse in a district hospital in the province of Siemreap-Angkor (Cambodia).
At the start of the film, we see her seated alone and crying on the stones of an Angkor ruin overlooking her village, which is typical of Khmer peasant villages.
She is contemplating the sunset and thinking about her recent past, her romance and her uneventful life with her husband, SEIHA, who has recently died as the result of a land mine explosion.
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2 – Flashback (the film now shows the story of NEARI’s recent past).
SEIHA (a 39-year-old Khmer surgeon from France) is in a S.N.C. Jeep travelling along a country road.
The Jeep stops in front of the district hospital. SEIHA is then welcomed at the hospital entrance by the Head Doctor and a young nurse (NEARI herself).
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3 – In his office, the Head Doctor congratulates SEIHA on volunteering to serve the people in a rural area, having left a good job on luxury clinic in France.
After many years of war tragedy, Cambodia is returning to peace and national unity, but the ground is still full of mines. Each week brings its batch of wounded, including some serious cases needing surgery. The Head Doctor himself in a surgeon, but SEIHA is far from superfluous in the “surgical” section of the small hospital.
Dr CHHUM, the Head Doctor, introduces SEIHA to NEARI ( who has lost her mother and is now a nurse in the surgery department).
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4 – As his assistant, every day NEARI is called upon to work with SEIHA, who must perform surgery on his compatriots wounded by land mines.
And every day, mutual respect and admiration bring SEIHA and NEARI closer and closer.
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5 – SEIHA is happy when in the village he meets a distant cousin, DARA, who insists that he live in her house. DARA is a teacher at the village primary school. Her husband is a former officer, now invalided out of the forces.
DARA neglects her husband (Captain SOK) whose health is declining due to his incapacity resulting from the war, where his bravery was recognized. But his infirmity means his wife is moving away from him, as she begins to care for her cousin, Dr. SEIHA, and she now only thinks of attracting him.
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6 – SEIHA and NEARI, very much in love, decide to marry. The ceremony, held in Angkor Thom, is very simple.
All the villagers rejoice except DARA, who does not hesitate to go to the house of Mr. BUTH, NEARI’s father, where she breaks his humble crockery and glassware, thinking that through this act of vandalism she will avenge the happy couple.
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7 – Back home, after throwing SEIHA’s pitiful belongings into the alley in front of the house, DARA tells her husband of her intention to divorce him and leave the village for Phnom Penh.
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8 – NEARI and her elder sister Dr BOPHA, who is in charge of the prosthetics workshop for the disabled, look after Captain SOK, the war hero and unhappy husband neglected by DARA, in addition to their hard word at the hospital and in the workshop.
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9 – Mr. BUTH, NEARI’s father, harvests the produce from a field. He is helped by little CHAMROEUN, his younger son, the young brother of NEARI and BOPHA.
CHAMROEUN was also one of DARA’s pupils, before she left for Phnom Penh.
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10 – Back from their district hospital in Siemreap, SEIHA and NEARI are shocked and saddened to learn that Captain SOK has committed suicide.
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11 – Captain SOK’s Buddhist cremation ceremony is attended by the unhappy SEIHA, NEARI, BOPHA and Mr. BUTH. Buddhist monks say prayers.
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12 – Beautiful and frivolous DARA is enjoying a wonderful life in Phnom Penh, where she is pampered by her new “love”, a rich banker.
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13 – With NEARI’s approval, her husband SEIHA volunteers to accompany a group of bomb disposal experts into a heavily mined area where malaria is rife.
After tenderly embracing his wife, SEIHA goes off into the forest with the group.
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14 - He flashback ends. We see a new NEARI.
She is alone, sadly contemplating the sunset.
NEARI (voice off): “Cambodia and her people do not deserve so much unhappiness and misery, which have found a new peace... a relative peace. But many problems remain to be solved.
Oh Lord Buddha! My husband has given his life for his country. He acted through patriotism, but also because he was deeply faithful to your noble Dharma of compassion for those who suffer and need succour. Lord, please ensure that the sacrifice of heroes like him is not in vain and that Kampuchea will live in honour and peace!”
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