Golden Slumbers

Nearly 400 films were produced in Phnom Penh between 1960 and 1975; only around 30 survive today. Most were burned or left to decay under the Khmer Rouge, alongside the destruction of studios and cinemas, while many filmmakers and performers became victims of the genocide. In Golden Slumbers, director Davy Chou—grandson of Cambodian cinema pioneer Van Chann—retraces this erased heritage through interviews, found footage, and acts of dreaming. In the absence of images, memory and imagination become vital archival tools. This ongoing recovery has since been institutionalised through the Bophana Audiovisual Center.While Golden Slumbers cannot restore what was destroyed, it offers an afterlife of another kind: one of dreams and hopes for a cinema yet to come, gently awakening it from its golden slumber.