terra di tutti film festival
Documentaries and social cinema exhibition
8th edition | 8-12 october 2014
WHEN ELEPHANTS DANCE THE GRASS GETS BEATEN
Jan Van Den Berg | Netherlands | 2014 | 25'
Moon is a farmer that lives in Cambodia, near Angkor Wat temples. With his earnings, he buys rice for the whole family and pays for his sisters’ school. He marries his girlfriend, Bun San. With the help and support of friends and family, they manage to find enough money for a traditional wedding. The short-film tells about the troublesome situation of many small family-run businesses in Cambodia. Everyday big multinational enterprises buy farmable land and small farmers find themselves without land and without income. Many migrate to Thailand in search for better living conditions. Stories of irregular migration, exploitation and torture. Since 2003, more than 400.000 Cambodian were expelled from their lands because of the phenomenon of 'land grabbing'.
Jan Van Den Berg is a Dutch cultural anthropologist and film-maker. He begins producing documentaries in the early seventies, before funding the drsFilm. All his films, like "Taming the Floods" (2001) e "Gallow Creek" (2009) focus on the relationship between human-beings and environment.