The Phnom Penh Post - ENGLISH: “Svay Rieng start title defence” plus 9 more

Reigning champions Svay Rieng begin the defence of their Metfone C-League title tomorrow at the Old Stadium with a somewhat tricky match-up against league debutants Albirex Niigata FC, who stacked up rather poorly behind Boeung Ket Rubber Field last week but are determined to make amends for their 4-1 defeat.

The man with last season's golden boot, Khoun Laboravy, is no longer with Svay Rieng. He is now in the Boeung Ket camp but Svay Rieng are already attuned to life without the 25-year-old goal machine and are presenting themselves in good shape and high spirits.

On paper at least, Svay Rieng have nothing much to fear from Albirex. But the first game of a league season is always a tough proposition for any side with the team composition, tempo and rhythm all coming into play.
Getting the right result and a positive spin from this opener is obviously high on coach Sam Vandeth's list of priorities before the kick off.

Svay Rieng missed the opening of the MCL last weekend as they were in neighbouring Vietnam to compete in the 2014 Ho Chi Minh City FC Cup at the Thong Nhat Sports Centre. However, Vandeth says his squad is now fully focused on their work at home.

"We need to concentrate now on our potential in local competitions such as the Metfone C-League and the Hun Sen Cup as well as our appearance in the 2014 AFC President's Cup," he told the Post yesterday.

The champions have been boosted by the acquisition of two foreign strikers – Frenchman and a Nigerian whose full names were not revealed by the club. "I am also seeking a foreign defender and I hope there will be good news soon," added the coach when questioned about more possible signings.

Naga Corp open the weekend's six-match schedule in buoyant mood after a stirring 3-0 win over Ministry of National Defence last week. They take on Takeo-based Kirivong Sok Sen Chey, who went down rather tamely to the National Police a week ago.

It is four seasons since Naga took the league honours and they are eager than ever before to get back to the good old glory days, having regained the services of head coach Prak Sovannara. The foreign component had a very strong hand in Naga's victory over Ministry of National Defence last time out and it is reasonable to expect another similar display from the imports, something that should sound alarm bells in the Kirivong camp.

At the Olympic Stadium, two university-backed sides face off in tomorrow's first match, with Western University and Asia Europe University battling it out in what promises to be closely contested match.

If TriAsia's hard fought 1-1 draw against BBU last week is any indication, the new entrants to this level may not go down without a fight against a team as strong and balanced as Kampong Cham's Boeung Ket. Last year's runners-up have a much stronger strike force than before and this should keep TriAsia's backline on the hop.

The pick of the weekend's matches is easily the clash between four-time champions Phnom Penh Crown and a robust MND, who on their day can take out the best in the business.

All the good virtues of a new look Crown was on show in that 4-0 drubbing of AEU and if the 2011 champs were to reproduce that form, MND could find themselves at the deep end. The Armymen's best hope is in their rugged style of play they are often feared for. Last year, the first half went terribly wrong for MND though they made a remarkable recovery in the second half of the season.

The team is bent on a better campaign this term and there is no better way to boost self-belief than engaging one of the heavyweights like Crown in a tough game.

Build Bright United have every reason to feel that last week's draw against TriAsia was more like two points dropped than one earned. If they play with the same zest, they could make matters difficult for the Police, who have a favourable wind behind their back following that compact win over Kirivong.

This week, the chief executive officer of Aero Cambodia Airlines, Brian Naswall, talks to the Post about running one of the first companies in the Kingdom to receive the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation's micro-light flying licence. He sees a bright future for the niche micro-carrier segment, and believes it will make reaching rural communities and boosting business supply chains easier.

What is Aero Cambodia Airlines and what are you offering?
We're a small airline with charter and taxi flights using aircraft less than 5,700 kilograms. Our micro-light aircraft have just one to three seats and they operate on land and water. We will also operate aircraft with up to 19 seats if there is demand in the future. We'll be flying to as many of the country's airports as we can. There was once 24 airports scattered around the country. Today, only a few are still in operation. Flights will be charged by the hour. That said, our lowest fares start at $50.

Is there a market for micro-light airlines in Cambodia?
Cambodians are moving up to a better standard of living and earning more disposable income for luxury items, such as travel. The seemingly unstoppable tourism growth is benefitting the aviation market greatly, and with more air travel to more locations, rural economies will also see the benefits of increased connectivity. We'll be targeting Cambodian customers in areas such as Battambang, Koh Kong, Ratanakkiri, Stung Treng and Kampong Cham. Then, we'll turn our attention to business people and tourists.

Could more small aircraft carriers improve the aviation sector as a whole?
Yes. It proves Cambodia's aviation sector is moving forward not just in the commercial carrier world. More small aircraft businesses of course means competition, but eventually, you will see off-shoot businesses thriving from increased rural aviation.

What can the aviation sector do as a collective to foster growth in 2014?
The aviation industry can promote Cambodia as a place where businesses can distribute their goods in more ways than one. They have choice now, to either drive or fly their goods to the most remote parts of the country within hours, not days. All countries that have a large aviation market, on all levels and capacities, also have a thriving economy as their distribution methods become less restricted.

What are the difficulties for small aircraft carriers in opening up in Cambodia?
The main difficulty is finding local and foreign investors to regain trust in Cambodia's aviation market. And admittedly, some of the things we're doing are new to the country and there has been a learning curve for everyone involved.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Twenty five years ago the world stood together, and agreed, as absolutely essential that greater attention and increased investments be paid to the care and protection of every child in all countries of the world.

They captured this promise in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

On ratifying the Convention in 1992, Cambodia made a strong and dynamic commitment to fulfill the rights of every girl and boy in this country to survive and be healthy, receive a quality education, have a name and an identity and live life without being subjected to violence, abuse and exploitation.

The Convention established minimum standards for Cambodia to achieve. It required that progress be measured and assessed and that data be used to see how far we have come and where we still need to go.

UNICEF's new global report – State of the World's Children 2014 in Numbers: Every Child Counts – Revealing disparities, advancing children's rights – makes a compelling case for data as one of the most powerful tools to drive action, identify gaps, influence decision-makers and target investments and interventions to reach the most vulnerable children.

It highlights the crucial role played by data to inform and direct better investments and interventions for every child. It indicates that data can expose wonderful advances for children and families, but also some striking inequities.

In Cambodia, data from various sources in different areas of the country – showing the differences between girls and boys, between rich and poor – paint a compelling picture for government to regularly review and reflect upon.

As the country crafts and revises joint monitoring indicators and finalises goals in the national strategic development plan – the report is a timely reinforcement of the importance for the government to produce and draw upon truly disaggregated data.

Data have the power to show for example in Cambodia that fewer children die before their fifth birthdays compared to 25 years ago, reducing from 116 to 40 live births per 1,000 between 1990 and 2012.

Data make us recognise that more girls and boys are enrolled in primary education than ever before (98 per cent), putting Cambodia on track to reach its 100 per cent MDG target by 2015.

Data challenge us to look more closely at lower secondary education which has stagnated at 35 per cent since 2007, making it impossible to reach the 75 per cent target by 2015.

In fact, data demonstrate the remarkable progress made by Cambodia over the past two decades, earning it a place among the countries that have achieved the most progress toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

While this is good news, data also uncover that progress is uneven on some issues such as nutrition, or access to improved sanitation, between provinces and among populations from the most remote areas.

The gap is also significant between children from the wealthiest and poorest families, leaving too many behind.

Thus, the picture painted by the data help identify trends as well as gaps and slippage. According to the Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) 2010, just over 62 per cent of children under five have their births registered in Cambodia, which is lower than the 2005 figure of 65 per cent.

CDHS 2010 also shows a huge gap in birth registration between rural (60 per cent) and urban (74 per cent), and between the rich (78 per cent) and the poor (48 per cent).

In some provinces, birth registration is two times lower compared to Phnom Penh.

Breaking the data down is increasingly important for policy makers as gaps are often hidden – which means the situation of children is hidden – if we only look at the national averages that may show overall improvement but mask the differences within Cambodia, rendering those children left behind as "invisible".

Getting data from sub-national levels allows disparities to be revealed so that the barriers children confront are better understood, and initiatives designed and monitored to overcome them.

When the government of Cambodia systematically analyses and uses data to inform social sector budget allocations, then efficiencies will be achieved in effectively tackling the most challenging issues facing children.

Data are making visible the children at greatest risk – those furthest from society's reach. It is up to decision-makers at all levels, from the national to the grass roots, to make sure that those children – and all children– are granted the opportunity to fully enjoy their rights.

As we mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child this year, UNICEF challenges us all to use data and evidence to inspire creative thinking and find innovative solutions to the most pressing issues confronting children.

This anniversary is an urgent reminder of the promises that have yet to be fulfilled – promises that can mean a world of difference for children.

Rana Flowers is the UNICEF Representative in Cambodia.

Gameweek 23 of the Cellcard Fantasy League was a midweek melee that boasted no real shortage of goals.

Man City continued to find the net with alarming regularity at Tottenham, as Edin Dzeko provided the performance of the round with a goal and two assists for 15 points.

The 27-year-old Bosnian striker has been both burning hot and freezing cold this season, with only 5.5 per cent of managers willing to back him this week. Dzeko's tally was matched by Swansea's Spanish defender Chico, who scored at one end and kept a clean sheet at the other against the free-falling Fulham.

Liverpool's fearsome frontmen Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge both amassed 11 points, although the latter would've done much better had he not missed a penalty for his hat-trick. Crystal Palace's midfield maestro Jason Puncheon notched the vital gamewinner against Hull to also rack up 11 points.

The weekly competition was another intriguing affair with Chea Vatana's Angkor Empire FC lording it over the rest on 97 points. However, Vatana had utilised his wildcard in making seven transfers, thus taking himself out of contention for the Cellcard prizes. Instead, the rewards fell to Rick Dubbeldam and his team Bayonitis. Rick made a legitimate four transfers, including bringing in Aston Villa hitman Christian Benteke for 18 points.

Rick also picked Suarez and Southampton's Adam Lallana (10 points) to help him win the US$20 phone voucher and T-shirt from Cellcard.

Gameweek 24 fills out the long weekend with ten fixtures including the Monday night headliner between table toppers Man City and title chasers Chelsea.

Feroze Alam, 41, is in Phnom Penh to start a fashion design studio, making clothes, selling them and taking on interns. Originally from Dehli, India, the designer can boast a long family relationship with the garment industry and the region: his grandfather was a diplomat based in Ho Chi Minh City who made frequent trips to Cambodia, and his family has had streets in the capital named after them.

Alam has worked all over the world: Dehli, New York and London's prestigious Savile Row. Previously, he made regular trips to Cambodia to source material for international designers. He spoke to 7Days about more than two decades in the fashion world, from mingling with Indian celebrities to making blazers for Julia Roberts..

It seems your family has a long history in Indochina, and in the clothing business?
My great grandfather was a cloth merchant, hence the surname Javalikadai meaning 'cloth selling', and the initial 'J' in our names. In Southern India back in the day, in the 1870s I guess, they would always buy cloth from either France, Italy or China, and go door-to-door to sell fabric to the women of the house at all the big houses. My grandfather wanted to start a textile mill employing Cambodians as he was very much in love with Cambodia and his wife, my grandmother, who was from Phnom Penh. But he died before he could realize that dream.

When did you decide to become involved in fashion?
Actually, I started off doing architecture. An uncle of mine came to India from the US, he was looking at my sketches. He's an architect. He said: 'I like what you're doing, but I see that you have this little flair going on, and I think you should look into fashion design."

And then you worked in the studio of one of India's most famous designers… ?
In India there's a designer called Rohit Bal, and in the rankings he's beyond [number] one, he's just solid gold, and I got a chance to work for him in Delhi before getting my visa to go to the United States for school. I just called him up one day and his mum was on the line. It's like going to see Armani – you know you have to make twenty appointments to see the guy, but the mother was like, 'Go to the office, my son will definitely come meet you.' He was very honest in his teaching. His studio was the only part of his place that was air-conditioned. The workshops were not, and Dehli's really hot, and so I was always stuck in the studio because it was air-conditioned. He was like, 'I don't wanna see you there, I want you to be in the workshop, learning from those guys what they're going, or going to the men's room.' Of course, there were a lot of celebrities there just hanging about. I really enjoyed the energy.

What secrets did you learn from your time on Savile Row?
What was so nice is [their motto]: 'if it's not perfect, it will not leave the studio.' The way they approach clothing is sacred, but you will never know, and they will never tell you, 'Oh, by the way it took us four days just to fix that sleeve to make it look on you that way.'

What were some of your most exciting moments in the business?
I fitted Julia Roberts. That was such a big experience, how to work with a straight face! She was nice. She was very, very nice.

It was late at night and she had a jacket done. When you work with certain clients you have to fit them every six months, because sometimes they're not always there. She'll make a call and say, 'Hey, I'm flying to France for this show, can you make me a jacket and deliver it to my hotel room in France?' She's not there so we have to make it as close as possible.It was a basic blazer, like a tuxedo-style, black with a little shine on the lapel.

How does it feel to be returning to Asia?
The timing is actually great because I have the experience, have the knowledge, the background, the backing, the support structure. I will also train local designers or students who want to be designers, because I understand from my conversations that it is very difficult to get into design schools here, it's very expensive, like it's only meant for rich kids.

How will you manage the politically sensitive nature of sourcing workers from factories in Cambodia?
I will work with factories, but with factories there's a political scene with how they are set up. I can't just go in there and get somebody and walk away – someone's going to get angry at me.

So there's a soft sell of how to take certain people and train them at the benefit of the factory owner. Technical design is a skill that a lot of Cambodians don't know. Technical designers are designers who come next to a designer and they see that the fitting of the garment is correct and the design spec is correct by sizing. So when you go into a store and you see 'small, medium, large', you know the size meant for you. That will be part of my curriculum.

When Theary* discovered she was pregnant with her third child, she knew she didn't want another baby. The 34-year-old, who lives in poor conditions in Kandal province, had stopped taking birth control pills, afraid that they were causing the child she was breastfeeding to become sick. This latest pregnancy was an accident. So she approached her nearest Marie Stopes International Cambodia centre, and in June received a safe abortion.

Theary's contact with Marie Stopes could have stopped there. However, thanks to a new technology being implemented by the reproductive health NGO, she was easily able to make contact with a counsellor and access information about what contraception was available to her, and how to use it.

A new mobile phone service used by the NGO leaves six automated voice messages on clients' phones once they've had an abortion, either advising them on family planning methods, prompting them to request a phone call with a counsellor or state that they have no problems. The system they use is called Verboice, and is created by the technology nonprofit InSTEDD.

Dr Sann Channa, head gynaecological surgeon at Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Centre, said that it's often hard for women to go directly to the clinic to access information about contraception and reproductive health.

"They might forget about their appointment because they're busy with work, or there might be personal reasons," she said. "This kind of technology helps women access this information remotely."

Chris Smith, who is in charge of Mobile Technology for Improved Family Planning (MoTIF), the name of the mobile technology program at Marie Stopes International Cambodia, said: "The message is designed to remind the client about contraceptives and also to act as a conduit for additional support, so a client listening to the message can press 1 [on their keypad] to request to speak to a counsellor, press 2 if they're fine, or press 3 to opt out. They can also sign in for a pill reminder and an injection reminder as well."

Post-abortion family planning is crucial, Smith said, in order to inform women of the options available to them, advise them on reproductive health issues and reduce the rate of repeat abortions. He said: "What we found was a lot of clients find it hard to make decisions about contraception at the time when they come to seek abortion services. They often need a bit more time to think about it, so it gives us an additional opportunity to maintain communication with a client."

Abortion has been legal in Cambodia since 1997 and can be performed any time up to 12 weeks of a woman's pregnancy. Because of the prevalence of unsafe abortions carried out behind closed doors, it's impossible to give a figure to the number of abortions carried out in the country. However, according to the Asian Safe Abortion Partnership, abortion-related deaths contribute up to 29 per cent of maternal deaths in Cambodia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the major dangers of unsafe abortions is the lack of aftercare and counselling and, rather more drastically, a lack of intervention should there be severe bleeding.

But even at Marie Stopes, which gives women access to safe abortion services, many women don't end up receiving follow-up checks and counselling. Smith said that due to a number of reasons including clients living far from the clinic, being busy with work and not wanting family to know about their abortion, the time when they sought abortion would often be the only time they'd make contact with the clinic.

Marie Stopes International Cambodia has been trialling MoTIF since October 2012 in clinics all over the country. So far, Smith said, the results look positive, with the use of post-abortion family planning having increased from 33 per cent to 56 per cent.

According to Smith, Marie Stopes was keen to latch onto the increasing use of mobile technology. The organisation found that 80 per cent of its clients had a mobile phone – and this was fairly consistent with national data. Smith added: "It really is the only way we can maintain contact with clients, especially those in a somewhat sensitive situation who have come to seek abortion services – we can't use post, we can't use email, we can't go to them face to face."

Cambodia's reproductive health sector isn't the only area that Verboice technology benefits. InSTEDD started implementing the tool in the Kingdom in 2012, using it to support several organisations including an election hotline, which gave people information about last year's general election, and a road safety awareness program.

But reproductive health does seem to be a common use. In January last year, the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia (RHAC), an NGO, formed an agreement with InSTEDD to use Verboice for its Reproductive Health Hotline program, which got off the ground in November.

In this program, men and women are encouraged to call a hotline in order to access advice and information relating to a number of sexual health issues, including not only contraception but also sexually transmitted diseases and cervical cancer. Users will call the number and be directed, with interactive voice response, through a number of options before picking what it is they wish to talk about. Like Marie Stopes, the service also provides an option for speaking with a counsellor. Since the hotline started, it's had more than 1000 callers.

Phearak Peng, program support officer at RHAC, said that before the hotline was created, access to information about sexual health issues was scarce. He said: "They can't find information anywhere and if they don't know what to do they'll face the consequences. I think providing this service is very helpful to the people who want to know, who need help. It empowers women and men to make their own choices."

*Name has been changed to protect identity.

Nancy Beavan is on the verge of a discovery. A set of ancient burial jars, a subject on which the archaeologist is something of an expert, has been sighted deep in the jungle. If she and her team can only find them, they will have another piece of a puzzle they have grappled with for more than 10 years.

On Saturday morning, Beavan set out on a days-long trek in the eastern Cardamom mountain range, where she hopes to find the 11th in a series of sites where ceramic jars were used for burials between the 14th and 17th centuries. It's a project she has worked on since 2003.

If she reaches the site, known as Cedi, Beavan and her colleagues intend to spend at least two days inspecting, photographing and geopositioning the site, before returning for more extensive fieldwork in the autumn, and hoping that it won't have been damaged either by natural causes or by ongoing development in the Cardamom mountains.

"The local people will probably know if they've been destroyed, but I'm hoping that's not the news that we have before we can go in October or November," Beavan said in an interview last week.

"But if I run out of time, or the sites are destroyed, at least we have the most basic recording of what was there.

"I still think that what we've been able to do has already changed the perception of what is the history of the people during this 14th to 17th century period."

One of the most intriguing aspects of the burials is that the period in which they occurred coincides with the decline of the Angkorian civilisation in the north of the country and the shift of power to Mekong trading ports.

While most of the jars found in the Cardamoms have been storage jars, believed to have been made in Thai kilns, several were made in an Angkorian style, hinting at intriguing connections between the people who lived in the highland areas and those in the lowlands.

There's no guarantee that the new site, which fits into a linear pattern of sites along a ridge line in the Cardamoms, will be accessible, or found intact. The area is mountainous and jars are often found precariously balanced on elevated ledges, according to Beavan. One of the other jar burials was found in an already damaged condition.

"When we find broken jars we don't necessarily blame people," said Beavan.

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"It can be rock flaking, pigs trying to find shelter or wanting to eat the bone, rats gnaw the bone, termites eat the bone and there's a lot of natural degradation."

Villagers living near to some of the remains have a strong connection with the jars and have carried out pilgrimages. It took months of delicate negotiations with local people in the area, near to the Areng Valley, to arrange this weekend's visit to Cedi.

Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, an environmental activist who has worked with the community for more than 10 years, said: "They know of other sites but they don't want to take people.

"Once the secret is out, they're afraid of people taking [the jars] away."

In 2002, a group associated with the making of a National Geographic documentary took jars and placed them in a museum. Local people have been wary of foreign visitors ever since. But a big threat to the jars has been the ongoing development projects in the Cardamoms, according to Beavan.

In 2011, the decision to cancel a planned titanium mine in the region which was "snack-dab over most of the jar burials", was a saving grace for the project, she said.

"I thought, wait, my sites are on rock, and they're going to be prospecting the rock – that's not a good thing!"

As a result, the archaeologist is anxious about leaving the jars alone for more than a few months. Other academic obligations will take Beavan to Europe in the summer but she wants to return to Cedi as soon as she returns.

"Why? Because as conservations have reported, there is a danger to the forest with clear-cutting and such. But along with the clear-cutting and bulldozing of access roads and such there comes a danger to the sites."

One solution is heritage protection zones, which have already been put in place at archaeological sites including Preah Vihear. These usually consist of little more than stakes and signs marking out the area.

"You could put markers around the spot but in a place like the Cardamoms, if anything, that is drawing attention to them," Beavan said.

"Sometimes, announcing it is not a good idea: 'this is really valuable, and you're in the middle of the jungle, and nobody's watching you.' It's like a free buffet."

In the case of the jars, markers have been put well away from the location. Their fate, however, is tied to that of the Cardamoms, a place Beavan believes still has much to reveal.

"It's enormous and it's complex and it still has so many secrets. I hope we discover some of them before it's all gone."

Cambodian-French director Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture, which follows the story of his childhood under the Khmer Rouge regime, has been nominated for best foreign language film, taking the country to the Oscars for the first time. In the weeks leading up to the ceremony in March, we review the rivals. This week, it's Denmark's turn, with Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt.

When it comes to the screen, Scandinavia is enjoying its belle epoque. Television dramas such as The Killing, Borgen and The Bridge have crept onto box-set shelves all over Europe, and Danish film director Lars von Trier's feature films Antichrist and Melancholia have earned him recent international success. In 2011, the Danish-Swedish co-production In a Better World won both the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The spotlight is now on Thomas Vinterberg. Long admired by film critics, his 2012 feature film The Hunt has enjoyed slow recognition internationally, and has this year been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category of the Academy Awards.

I decided to watch the film for a second time earlier this week, on a day when the production won seven Robert Awards from the Danish Film Academy. It's completely deserving of its praise, a visual beauty about a gritty subject matter that is dealt with maturely and sensitively.

The Hunt tells the story of Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a divorced kindergarten teacher in a small town who is, based on a child's imagination and ensuing hysteria, accused of pedophilia, and turned upon by colleagues, friends and neighbours. To make matters more complicated, that child is Klara, daughter of his best friend Theo. While referring to the witch hunt that Lucas is subjected to, the film's title also alludes to the deer-hunting hobby he shares with his friends: a rather obvious metaphor, but one that allows exploration of a manner of topics, such as the disruption of Lucas's involvement in a community tradition, and the question of who is the hunter and who is hunted.

The difficulty with child abuse allegations is that people are reluctant to question them. The problem has been very much at the forefront of public consciousness, in the UK at least, since the revelations about Jimmy Savile two years ago. But equally, a recent case in which a disabled man, falsely accused of pedophilia was beaten, set on fire and killed by his neighbours on the streets of Bristol, has drawn attention to the perils of untrue allegations.

This dilemma comes across well in the film, with Susse Wold portraying the accusing kindergarten teacher with a tortured look on her face, unsure how much of Klara's story to believe. My sympathies with her wavered. Admittedly, she deals with the situation appallingly, but there is some degree of understanding with somebody whose sole job it is to ensure the welfare and protection of young children.

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Beneath The Hunt's chilling portrayal of persecution lies a more subtle commentary on the gulf between adults and children. At several points during the film we see Klara, who must be no more than seven years old, walking around the town alone. After she has implicated Lucas in her abuse, her parents cut their best friend out of their lives, but leave their child free to roam the streets and show up at his door. One has to wonder whether her attachment to Lucas and jealous accusation is related to some kind of need for a present father figure in her life, one who will walk with her and look ahead while she avoids the cracks in the pavement.

Lucas's relationship with his teenage son, Marcus, is also touching. We first see him elated that Marcus is leaving his mother to live with him, and Marcus loyally defends his father at every step. But Lucas's concerns for their safety drive his son away again. While the reason may be out of his control, he, too, cannot connect with his offspring.

In Vinterberg's world, adults and children live separately, rarely interacting, rarely able to understand one another, and the idea of a child's innocent mistake and wild imagination causing repercussions in the "grown-up world" has echoes of Ian McEwan's acclaimed novel Atonement.

The Hunt's style is noteworthy. Vinterberg's Dogme-95 filmmaking movement, established with his contemporary von Trier, rejects overproduction, and this is evident in the film. Location is limited to one town, more specifically between three houses, a supermarket, church and the kindergarten, evoking the claustrophobia that engulfs Lucas as he becomes increasingly alone. The only relief is on the hunt, where we are treated with wonderful shots of rich Danish foliage.

Mads Mikkelsen, who won a Robert Award for his excellent acting, depicts the gradual decline of a man rebuilding his life after divorce, a man who is surrounded by friends, who has a loving relationship with his son and a job he loves. Mikkelsen's Lucas begins the film a tower of a man; the culmination, a tense scene in a church on Christmas Eve, sees him utterly defeated. Performances are solid throughout, but Annika Wedderkopp, who plays the role of Klara, stands out as a brilliant child actor.

Verdict: It's hard to pick faults with The Hunt, making it a strong contender for the best foreign language film. It offers ethical questions, insightful character development and beautiful cinematography, and has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat. Its haunting overtones will also stay in your mind for days.

Just north of the Olympic Stadium in the capital's Prampi Makara district is a community that has been literally falling apart for the past two years. On January 3, 2012, more than 300 families were displaced at Borei Keila after the government cleared the site to make way for a construction project which has yet to materialise. The inhabitants now live either in makeshift huts stitched together from scrap and tarps, or in a single dilapidated tenement that survived the destruction of the original neighbourhood.

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While some agreed to move to relocation sites in Kandal province and the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 117 families opted to stand their ground on the land they insist is theirs.

Phan Imex, the company that was granted approval to develop the site, had promised to build 10 apartment buildings on the site to house the evictees. But the company went bankrupt in 2010 after only completing eight buildings, leaving the remaining residents out of a home. While the residents claim to have land titles, and Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong vowed to resolve the disputes when he took office last May, the system has yet to provide solutions for the dozens of families who have chosen to stay at Borei Keila.

The residents frequently make their plight heard at protests in Phnom Penh. Last Monday, the evictees tried to join Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando's rally but were blocked from leaving the site by security forces.

Sou Em, a 58-year-old garment worker from Kampong Thom who protests regularly, lives in a shack made of tin, wood and plastic. Although her children moved back to their homeland, Em said she vows to stay put until her land title is recognised. "I will not go back to Kampong Thom, because everything I have is here. The house I should have is here."

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Tim Sakmony, a land rights activist in her mid-60s who first moved to Borei Keila in 1995, spent almost four months in Prey Sar prison in late 2012 following her participation in protests. She was convicted of making false statements to secure an apartment at Borei Keila for her disabled son on the same day that fellow activist and cellmate Yorm Bopha was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of intentional violence, although Sakmony's sentence was suspended.

After more than a year out of prison, she lives in a one-room flat with four other people in Borei Keila, where she raises chickens through a hole in the wall to make ends meet. It is a step up from the tent she had lived in before the room became available, which was even better than the staircase she had lived underneath before then.

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"Before the government took the land, people lived easily," Sakmony said. "Of course we were poor, but it was fine." Like most Borei Keila residents, she said she has a land title that the government does not recognise.

"We feel very hurt, we feel very bad here."

Without a definite place to call home, she said that her family suffers.

"The house is the most important thing for the family," she said.

When news came that her old house was to be destroyed, she said that there was nothing to do but protest.

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"The first choice we made after the government destroyed our house was to protest."

The future, she said, is bleak.

"When we think of the future, there is no good living conditions."

Ourn Kong Pineat, Sakmony's 47-year-old son and an army veteran, lives with the family but is unable to work due to a shrapnel wound in the head from the 1980s war that left him disabled. His twin children, a boy and a girl born in 2000, lost their mother shortly after their birth, leaving Sakmony as the family's primary breadwinner.

Sakmony's apartment block is the only permanent structure still in use from the original Borei Keila neighbourhood. She said, however, that the government tries to coax the residents into leaving by making it as unlivable as possible. Utilities have been turned off, and the railings on the balcony have been removed by the government, she said.

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Yos Pov, a 53-year-old scavenger from Svay Rieng, has lived at Borei Keila since 2000.

She said she is relatively happy to live in a wooden shack with a tin roof because she had lived under the adjacent apartment building until five months before.

She had been a fried noodle vendor, but was forced to sell her cart to pay off debts. She now collects metal waste in a push-cart. She lives with three children and her husband, who is also a scavenger.

"My business is not good, and it is very hard to earn money for food," she said.

The site, she said, is no place to live, with the stench of human waste constantly in the air. Diarrhoea, especially among children, is rampant.

Like most shopping centres, Toul Kork Avenue, which opened in late December of last year, is a little short on quirk but long on brands. There's a Pedro shoe shop and an Adidas. There's Suki Soup and Chatime. The first of its kind in Cambodia, the place is very chic. At night, manicured trees are spotlit with beaming fluorescent lights and walkways wind through upscale boutiques.

Metro Azura, the sister restaurant to Metro and Metro Rahu on Riverside, is the classiest dining option. It's a grand building, located at front of the avenue along Street 516 across from Suki Soup and next to the Snow Yogurt. The ceilings are high and it's lit with blue glowing panels. Drinks range from around $3 to $7. It's not dissimilar to the original Metro, with which it shares a menu.

On an evening last week, as families shopped and teenage girls clustered over frozen yoghurt outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, two friends and I wet our whistles with two dirty martinis and a "gin" ginger (each $5.20), a gin and ginger-alone combo with a refreshing mojito-like twist garnished with mint, lime and shaved ginger.

After all this style, some of the mains were a little disappointing. The tuna steak salad consisted simply of four large triangles of tuna that pointed towards the leaves. The chunks were well-cooked, with a sesame crust, but the dish was too forgettable for the $7.20 price tag.

The next entree, grilled duck with a large nest of arugala, spritzed with a light vinaigrette, was an improvement. I had never seen such a generous portion of neatly sliced fowl. Bacon was mixed with grilled apple in the accompanying sauce but I might have preferred grilled onion, or chunkier vegetables.

We also ordered a pate and brie sandwich – an unusual dinner choice, but a safe one, given the quality of the pate at the old Metro. The pate was a creamy blend of liver and some sort of pork, with a pleasing after-kick of spice and bite, sandwiched, along with decent brie, between two slices of ciabatta-like bread. Tomato and arugula freshened up the dense helping, which was priced at $6.50.

While we were left too full for dessert, the experience hadn't been especially satisfying. Perhaps if we had spent the late afternoon shopping up a storm, the place would have been a more welcome relief. If you're not curious to see the new avenue, save the tuk-tuk fare and stick with Metro Riverside for your Asian-fusion needs.

Corner Streets 315 and 516, Toul Kork.