Cambodia Dreams

No, I am not losing the plot.  Neither am I moving to Cambodia.  It was that last night I went to a restricted screening put on by Thai PBS of a feature film, named "Cambodia Dreams". 

This film was made by a New Zealander, Stanley Harper.  It presents the story of a poor, Cambodian farming family during the post-Khmer Rouge period.  At this time, Cambodia had been ravaged and could not produce food to feed its people.  People in the countryside knew starvation. 

This film follows the plight of one poor, rural Cambodian family suffering from hunger.  Half of the family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand in search of food.  The other half stayed in the village in Cambodia.  Those in the camp ended up staying there for 12 years, returning home in 1992.  This was a typical scenario which resulted in families being divided. 

In returning home from the camps, there were the huge challenges of family reunification and reconciliation following such a long ordeal.  Where would those returning live?  Would they be accepted back into their families and villages?  How would they live and feed themselves?  It was about dispossessed refugees returning home unnanounced and what sort of welcome and home would they find and how would those who stayed cope with this sudden return after so long?  It was all unknown and frightening for all concerned.  The story shows how reunification and reconciliation can happen as people choose to believe in who they are and where they come from. 

As Stanley Harper spoke after the film, he made a statement which hit me in the face.  There he was in the village on the return home of those who had been in the the refugee camp for 12 years.  He was waiting to see what would happen and he did not notice anything dramatic but then it struck him -
I HAD NOT SEEN WHAT I HAD BEEN LOOKING AT.
Reconciliation was happening all along right there in front of him and he did not recognise it. 

Wow!  How true that is for any of us in life.  We just don't see what is happening right in front of us.  We don't see the good.  We don't understand the situation before us for what it is.  How often, we just don't get it.