Becoming Human only screens this week. Last seats available for this Sunday’s screening at 6pm.
Set against the decaying walls of an abandoned cinema in Battambang awaiting demolition, Polen Ly’s acclaimed Cambodian drama follows Thida, a guardian spirit who has watched over the building since Cambodia’s golden age of film.
As developers prepare to tear down the structure, she faces a profound choice: accept the possibility of rebirth or remain a wandering ghost. Her quiet existence shifts when she encounters Hai, a young man visiting the ruins to photograph the space and reconnect with his own fading memories.
The reason this micro-budget masterpiece works so brilliantly is how it uses the supernatural not as a cheap genre trick, but as a poignant lens to examine a rapidly modernizing Cambodia. Anchored by delicate performances and stunning cinematography, it becomes a deeply moving elegy for lost physical spaces, cultural memory, and the ghosts we carry with us.
Selected as Cambodia’s official entry for the Academy Awards, this meditative festival favorite is a vital milestone for contemporary Khmer cinema.
Cambodia (Khmer with English subtitles)
99 mins
