​         Director's Statement

Being from a war-torn country and dealing with post-war themes has been my focus and a great challenge.  I visited Cambodia in 2011 when I was researching what was to become the film Nowhere to Hide (2016) which ended up following a male nurse and his family in Iraq. The trip to Cambodia opened my eyes, and also devastated me. On that visit I had met our protagonist Heng and his family. The images of the young severely injured boy stayed with me, an illustration of what it’s like living the consequences of a war that ended decades ago.

What I found out about Heng exceeded all my expectations for amputees in the developing world. Heng had escaped an almost predestined fate. How was this possible? In 2017, after spending a year of research and gaining trust within the community, I spent 3-4 years filming with unique intimate ,SAS access to Heng, his older brother Chana, their parents, and friends. What I uncovered was a fantastic insight into a postwar era through this family’s story, where war is still present despite many years of peace; a family drawn between the old and new Cambodia.