DAP: The breaking news in Cambodia: “Cambodia hosts int'l film heritage festival” plus 1 more

PHNOM PENH, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The 1st international film heritage festival kicked off here on Saturday night, aiming at encouraging interest in preserving classic films, an organizer said.

About 40 classic films from around the world will be viewed on 35-mm screening equipment at Chaktomuk Theater and the Bophana Center for 9 days with free access for all, said Rithy Panh, president and founder of the Bophana Center at the opening ceremony.

He said among those classics are two films produced by late King Father Norodom Sihanouk. They are Apsara made in 1965 and the Joy of Living in 1969.

Besides, there are classics from various countries such as India, Japan, Argentina, France, Spain, the United States, Germany, Russia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

"Films are endangered everywhere in the world if they are not well preserved," he said. "Over 90 percent of films around the world made before 1929 are lost forever".

He said as films are part of the memory of a nation and humanity, they need to be taken care of--that means collecting them, searching for them when they are considering to be lost and preserving them in safe locations.

King Norodom Sihamoni was among 700 local and foreign spectators who watched classics on Saturday, the first day of the festival at the capital's Chaktomuk Theater.

The international film heritage festival focused on cinema and all films produced in Cambodia or elsewhere before the early 1980s.

In a message to congratulate the occasion, Prime Minister Hun Sen said that the festival represented an encouraging historical come back for Cambodia.

"We are delighted that Cambodia finds itself at the heart of international and cultural dialogue," he said. "We wish for these exchanges to become lasting contributions which will work towards Cambodia's influence throughout the world".

Tourism minister Thong Khon said the ministry of tourism strongly supported this festival, which was a vehicle for Cambodia to be known worldwide.

"It is a bridge between past and present, between Cambodia and the world," he said in a message.

PHNOM PENH, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Saturday that his Cambodian People's Party would definitely win a landslide victory in July's general election and advised his ministers to prepare for the implementation of the next five-year action plan in the forthcoming new term of government.

"It's no doubt, no one can defeat the Cambodian People's Party, " the premier said during the celebration of the 64th anniversary of the International Children's Day at the Diamond Island Grand Theater in Phnom Penh.

"It is clear that I will still be the prime minister in the government's next five-year term (2013-2018) after the forthcoming election," said Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia since January 1985.

On Thursday, U.S.-backed International Republican Institute unveiled a survey result, according to which 79 percent of the Cambodian people believed that Cambodia was headed in the right direction under the leadership of Hun Sen.

According to the survey, conducted early this year, 79% of the 2,000 respondents said that the country was moving in the right direction because the government had built more roads, bridges, schools, health clinics, pagodas, irrigation systems and worked towards poverty reduction.

Twenty-one percent of the respondents said the nation was in the wrong direction, citing corruption, illegal immigration, nepotism, damage to environment and fisheries, low crop prices for farmers, land grabbing, and poverty, it said.

Cambodia is set to hold a general election on July 28, according to the National Election Committee. Some 9.67 million eligible Cambodians will cast their ballots in the upcoming polls for the 123-seat parliament.

Eight parties will run in the election. Among them are three major parties including the ruling Cambodian People's Party headed by Hun Sen, the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party led by self-exiled leader Sam Rainsy, and the royalist Funcinpec Party headed by Princess Norodom Arun Rasmey, the youngest daughter of late King Father Norodom Sihanouk.