Fireworks Logo

Latest Shorts...

  • Pacemaker
  • Best Wishes
  • Bro
  • Camderina Diner (The)
  • Other Side of Clean (The)
  • altSHIFT Volume One
  • Male Gaze: A Better Tomorrow (The)
  • Hangry
  • Strange Way of Life
  • Troy
  • Revived
  • Lollygag
  • Bleach
  • Dykes on Bikes: An Origin Story
  • Betty and Jean
  • Malcolm
  • Talent (The)
  • Just Passing
  • Bubbling
  • Heart Fruit
  • Strangers
  • Dreaming of You
  • Swimming in the Dark
  • Scaffold
  • Desire's Exhibition
  • Prince's Dilemma (The)
  • Barnaby
  • Baba
  • Aangan 'a blooming space'
  • Mary
  • Woven Threads: Stories from Within
  • G Flat
  • Scaring Women at Night
  • Living with It
  • Archive: Queer Nigerians (The)
  • Tui Ná
  • Will You Look at Me
  • Pre-Game Ritual
  • Boyfriend
  • 100% USDA Certified Organic Homemade Tofu

Two Girls Against the Rain

Country: Cambodia, Language: Khmer, 11 mins

Original Title

Bopha Pitorng Chhomnas Tekpleang
  • Director: Sao Sopheak

CGiii Comment

It's a simple and rather beautiful love story...

These two women have fought through hardship and fear...small steps, giant leaps for equality.

Commendable.


Watch...

The(ir) Blurb...

After almost 30 years of civil war and the genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia is still one of the poorest countries in the world. Traditional values and customs such as arranged marriages are upheld. Same-sex relationships are legal when it involves non-commercial acts between consenting adults in private. While traditional cultural mores tend to be tolerant in this area, even expressly providing support for people of an intermediate or third gender, LGBT rights legislation has not yet been enacted by the ruling government.

The short documentary 'Two Girls Against the Rain' by Cambodian female filmmaker Sao Sopheak is the first locally produced documentary, which gives a voice to members of the lesbian community.

It’s a true story about two women struggling for their love. Soth Yun (57) and Sem Eang (58) met during the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, during which over two million people died. Soth and Sem survived. Today the couple live in a village in Takeo province in southern Cambodia, approximately 40 kilometers from the capital Phnom Penh. They do not have children of their own, but have raised several nieces and nephews. Theirs has been a long fight against stigmatization by fellow villagers and their family. And the fight continues - now for the right to marry legally.