Part III of DETLEV BUCKs diary and his first journey to Cambodia

Today you can read the last part of Detlev Bucks private diary written on his first trip to Cambodia. See how Casting in Cambodia is and what Detlev Buck thought about the project on his trip back home.
Enjoy and stay tuned!

Wednesday
I’m moving shortly into the Riverstar and then away to the country. Return in the evening. Another bar opposite to the hotel. No new insights there, or no, I met this Belgian guy, who isn’t attracted to Cambodian women, because he’s missing the intellectual conversations. It’s too simple for him, long-term. A new point of view. The intellectual difference.

Thursday
With the location scout through the slums, along the old railway, a good location for the movie. My favourite photo is blurry. Then to a beautiful pagoda, of which my favourite monk is the head of. He would also act in the movie for two days. At the arrival he and a couple of monks are waiting fort he English teacher. Next to the very beautiful old pagoda is a jail where to Khmer Rouge time people basically sat in a hole.
Couldn’t even make a photo of it.
At the evening: Nico’s birthday. The Khmer like to clink glasses and drink insanely fast.
A little bit like on a wedding and they also like to take pictures incredibly much. I feel sick and I have to go home.

Friday: Casting
All the girls come with their father, mother or brother or two sisters. Only the first came alone. The verbal communication is very moderate. No woman from Cambodia is going to play really unrestricted, since the pressure from the family is too big.
Even just a kiss on the mouth would maximally lead to a kiss on the cheek.

Saturday:
The attempt of a Khmer woman, who speaks English relatively well, to explain what casting is, it’s a try to build up a network. I give her the task to search for a woman until tomorrow, who could sit in the bar, to see, if we understand each other. The result is a back and forth, where she has to go to a wedding, but sends me some friends without me knowing about it, who are waiting in front of my hotel etc. In a nutshell, it’s not going to work like that. The attempt was a failure.

Sunday
I’m speeding into the Sharky to meet a bargirl, who doesn’t make such a fuss, about the portrayal of a bargirl. Fabian gave her the brief outline of the story and she herself had a German boyfriend, who didn’t come back. She thinks she’s ugly and says all the time “I am bad”. Then she asks me about my private situation and when I explain it, why I’m not wearing a ring etc.
I notice, oha, you can’t reconstruct the Heart of Darkness club here in Phnom Penh.

Monday
Now I’m sitting in the airplane and the neighbour already asks what the next movie is going to be about. I don’t know, if it’s gonna work out, I say.