TV Reviews : ‘Situation Zero’: Cambodia at ‘Peace’

The image of a withdrawing army instantly triggers notions of peace, and it’s peace that most people expect for Cambodia. That is because television news reports were awash last week with footage of the Vietnamese army leaving Cambodia, which Vietnam had occupied for 10 years. The reality underneath these images is that Vietnam is indeed bringing peace--to Vietnam. As for the reality of Cambodia, one need look no further than Stanley Harper’s stark yet humane documentary, “Situation Zero” (at 9 tonight on Channel 28).

With the precision and compassion of the best cinema verite film makers, Harper chooses a specific subject to illuminate a vast problem. The problem is the intolerable clustering on the Thailand border of Cambodian refugees escaping warfare inside their decimated country. The subject is a family housed in Site 2, supported by the United Nations and guarded by the Khmer People’s Liberation Front. At the time of this film, the KPLF was in uneasy alliance against the Vietnamese occupiers with the notorious Khmer Rouge, responsible for the genocide of millions during its dictatorship in the 1970s.

The family, led by an engaging bulldog of a woman named Chheing Yan, finds itself in a no-man’s-land of bitter irony. The world outside the camp will bring sure death, through bullets or starvation. Life inside the camp, though, brings the imprisoning sense of dependency on outside relief agencies to provide the basics, from water to grains to fish. The UN’s successful support has at the same time eroded the Cambodians’ historically rooted sense of independence. “Situation Zero” shows a predicament that is the worst possible world--except for all the others.

Harper’s cameras cut between Yan, her granddaughter, Yi Chom, and Chom’s husband, Soeun Phourng, who has lost both legs in the army. Phourng writes her of his fate, but she is not prepared for his arrival on artificial legs and crutches. Her wailing becomes a sad music that underscores the image of this crippled family, supporting each other as they hobble down one of the camp’s dirt paths. Seen in light of Cambodia’s uncertain future, “Situation Zero” becomes a poetic lament for a people desperately clinging to life, while surrounded by death.

Following “Situation Zero” are two additional films on Cambodia: “The Prince and the Prophecy” at 10 p.m. and “Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia” at 11 p.m.