S.F. Asian American

New Year Baby

 (Documentary -- U.S.-Cambodia)

Born in a refugee camp to parents who preferred never to discuss their experiences under the Khmer Rouge, Socheata Poeuv susses out a highly dramatic backstory in "New Year Baby." This fine first feature is a disarming personal docu that turns into a very moving consideration of historical genocide and individual heroism. Winner of a well-deserved jury prize at the San Francisco Asian-American Film Festival, it merits further exposure on the fest, educational and broadcast circuits. A 56-minute cut also exists for latter outlets. 

All adults busy with their own lives, helmer and her three siblings return home to their immigrant parents' Dallas home for Christmas, the first time they've all been assembled for a while. As a result, the elder Poeuvs decide to reveal (off-camera) some startling news kept secret from Socheata until now: Elder sisters Leachena and Mala are really her cousins, brother Scott a half-sib fathered by mom's previously unmentioned first husband.

Scott and Socheata agree to accompany Ma and Pa on what will be the children's first visit to Cambodia since all concerned fled nearly three decades ago. Official mission is to meet (surviving) relatives, but the filmmaker also plans to use the trip to nudge full disclosure about the traumatic past from her folks.

They are not always inclined to cooperate in that pursuit, and that obstinacy -- as well as the playfully barbed banter between the two of them -- injects quite a bit of affectionate humor into the early proceedings.

After a brief archival-footage recap of how Cambodia came to suffer the brief but horrifically brutal rule of Pol Pot and his quest for a classless "perfect society" -- at a cost of some 2 million lives -- the Poeuvs arrive in their native land, whose lush landscapes are nicely captured by lenser Jason Bolling. They visit the sites of erstwhile labor camps where upper-class, mixed-race Min and ethnic Cambodian Houng were forced to toil -- and to marry, we eventually discover. Starvation, disease and arbitrary execution claimed many of their relatives, including children.

Socheata's righteous outrage finds little satisfaction in contemporary Cambodia, where this dreadful back chapter seems pretty well-buried. No one has ever been brought to trial for Khmer Rouge atrocities; the couple of former officials we meet exhibit no guilty conscience, saying they were simply following orders.

At last her parents' resistance to dredging up the past crumbles, revealing the extraordinary personal losses and perilous flight that finally landed adults, biological offspring and adopted children in (of all places) Texas. It's a remarkable story with lump-in-throat impact.

Feature-length version is particularly well-edited by Sandra Christie, suggesting the shorter one would really lose some flavor (if not its educational value). Notable element in the package is the contribution of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, whose simple but powerful animations lyrically evoke some of the human-rights violations that abounded in this tragic historical episode.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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