“What happens to people, ethics, and morals when alcohol and capitalism are unleashed in a poor and corrupt country with few restrictions?” The question is part of a synopsis for Cambodian Beer Dreams, a documentary by Laurits Nansen (Welcome to the Frontline, Emilie Meng – An Investigation Gone Wrong,
The Town Where Children Disappear) that will world premiere at the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival CPH:DOX on March 12.
The film, screening in the F:act Award section of the Danish fest, whose 23rd edition takes place March 11-22, takes us into shady territory unknown to much of the world.
In Cambodia, large international and local brewers are battling to win the war for the country’s rapidly growing beer market. And the question of whether the end justifies the means doesn’t seem to be in focus for them. “Through aggressive marketing, young ‘beer girls’ and promises of cash prizes, the poor population is encouraged to drink more and more alcohol – sometimes to the point of death,” highlights the synopsis.
In Cambodian Beer Dreams, Nansen follows Kim Eng, a lone activist who stands up to the beer industry and “neo-colonial alcohol capitalism” in his fight for a national alcohol law. After all, the country has no legal drinking age and only a few, rarely enforced directives. This has contributed to alcohol consumption in Cambodia increasing fivefold over the past two decades, according to press notes for Cambodian Beer Girls.
‘Cambodian Beer Dreams’
Courtesy of Laurits Nansen
“What surprised me most was the sheer scale of the beer industry’s marketing efforts. When I first arrived in Phnom Penh, the city was completely covered in beer advertisements,” Nansen says in a director’s statement. “There were cash prizes on beer cans, young women were hired as beer girls, and the beer industry had gained enormous influence over everything from popular culture to politics.
International breweries, such as Carlsberg and Heineken, have led this type of marketing for many years, and it is striking that some of the methods they use in Cambodia would be entirely unacceptable if applied in Europe under their own codes of conduct.”
But his interest in making Cambodian Beer Dreams also arose from personal experience. “When I was young, my father died after several years of alcohol abuse, and like many Danes and Europeans, I have seen how alcohol can destroy a person and have devastating consequences for those close to them,” he shares. “At the same time, we live in a culture where alcohol plays such a dominant role that it almost becomes invisible.”
Diving into the alcohol growth market that is Cambodia allowed the filmmaker to see its dark sides at play. “It presented an opportunity to explore what happens to people, ethics, and morality when alcohol and capitalism are unleashed like two wild animals,” says Nansen.
THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for Cambodian Beer Girls, produced by Malene Flindt Pedersen of Hansen & Pedersen and Signe Skov Thomsen. It takes us from the dreams, such as promises of money, success and life as a party, to the nightmares, such as wandering hands and phone threats. Get a first taste of the documentary Cambodian Beer Girls below.
