Synopsis

SYNOPSIS: May 4, 1970 - During the Vietnam War, a combined US and South Vietnamese military operation enters Cambodia to locate and destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sanctuaries. A Cambodian youth named Samnang ('Lucky') and an ornery but likable wedding musician make their way through the conflict. They encounter landmines, surreal Cambodian ghosts known as 'Arbs', and marauding helicopters as they go.

What the Film Is About

Writer-director Jason Rosette has described 'Freedom Deal' as the story of "a couple of civilian persons caught up in an uninvited conflict on their doorstep, a conflict brought on by geopolitical forces beyond their influence, but not beyond their comprehension."

That distinction matters. Lucky and Nuon understand exactly what is happening to them. What they don't have is any say in it. The film sits inside that gap, between the scale of the forces moving through Cambodia in 1970 and the size of two people trying to get from one town to the next alive. Words like enemy, ally, and incursion carry a great deal of weight in a briefing room. On the ground, they mostly just mean who is shooting, and from which direction.

Why the Arb Belongs Here

As Lucky and Nuon move through the war, they are also followed by something older than it: an 'Arb,' a spirit from Cambodian folklore, detached and hungry, drawn to death and disorder. It is not a monster inserted into the story for effect. It is part of the world Lucky and Nuon already carry with them, the same way the war is.

That portrayal was shaped directly by research. During six years spent living in Cambodia, writer-director Jason Rosette and his Cambodian collaborators interviewed villagers, including some who described their own accounts of Arb sightings, conversations that shaped how the spirit is portrayed on screen. A war brings its own kind of violence and dislocation. Folklore, in Lucky and Nuon's world, is one of the ways people have always had to make sense of what violence like that unleashes. The Arb isn't a horror element laid over history. It's part of how the history is understood by the people living through it.

A Title That Cuts Both Ways

'Freedom Deal' takes its name from a real, named US-South Vietnamese air support campaign that coincided with the 1970 ground Incursion this film depicts, one detail of many drawn from the historical record. But set against Lucky and Nuon's story, the title carries a second, unofficial meaning. There is no freedom in it for either of them, no deal they were party to. The phrase belongs to the people who named the operation, not to the people who lived inside it.

Why This Film Exists

Jason Rosette first came across this story almost by accident, on a trip from Phnom Penh to the Mekong river town of Kratie, around 2007. The group stopped for lunch in a crossroads town called Snoul. It was only later that he learned Snoul had seen heavy fighting between US and Vietnamese forces during the 1970 Incursion, a fact about his own country's history that had been sitting, entirely unmarked, in a town he'd passed through for lunch.

He is an American. This is, at its center, a Cambodian story. Rosette lived in Cambodia for close to six years, learned the language, and worked alongside Cambodian collaborators throughout the film's research and production. What drew him in as a native Ohioan was specific: Kent State, the shootings of protesting students in his own home state, was a direct response to the same 1970 Incursion this film depicts on the ground, in the country where it actually happened.

How the Cambodian Team Shaped the Story

'Freedom Deal' was not researched or written by one person working alone. Assistant director and co-director Phun Sokunthearith contributed significant story elements over the course of the production. Sound recordist and associate producer Tieng Ratha worked as translator and editing assistant as well, carrying the story through post-production in two languages. Yvon Hem, a pioneering figure of 1960s Golden Age Cambodian cinema, served as story consultant before his passing in 2012. And the villagers who spoke about their own encounters with the Arb shaped the film's most distinctive element directly, through conversation, not research alone.

Historical Context

'Freedom Deal: The Story of Lucky' is a fictionalized account of the 1970 Cambodian Incursion, when combined US and South Vietnamese forces crossed into Cambodia to locate and destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong sanctuaries. Most prior treatments of this era have come from a Western point of view, tying the Incursion to the student protests and shootings that followed at Kent State and Jackson State. This film asks what was happening on the ground in Cambodia while that was unfolding, drawing on field research near the former COSVN site outside Kratie and in the Fishhook and Parrot's Beak regions.

A Pioneering Production

Making this film in Cambodia meant working without most of what a production usually depends on: no rental houses, equipment sourced locally, borrowed, or shipped in directly. To close that gap, the team turned to one of Cambodia's first crowdfunded independent feature film efforts, raising initial production funds and later a second round for postproduction, editing, and festival distribution, in a country where crowdfunding platforms were still virtually unknown.

Production Notes

'Freedom Deal: The Story of Samnang (Lucky)' was shot on location in Kandal province, Cambodia, in August and September 2012, with final edit, mix, and color correction completed in 2013.

The shoot raced the weather as much as the schedule. Rainy season was closing in, and once it arrived in earnest, production would have become far harder. The crew van got stuck in the mud on day one and was swapped for a four-wheel drive for the rest of the shoot.

Casting ran through open calls in Phnom Penh, a practice still unusual in Cambodia at the time, with the Cambodia Daily providing ad space in its Khmer edition to help announce it.

Cast

Khoun Darith plays Lucky (Samnang). Darith was selected after auditioning over 100 participants through an open call in Phnom Penh. At the time of filming he was a third-year student majoring in "Ye Ke Drama" at the Royal University of Fine Art, and he continues to act in local screen and classical stage productions in Cambodia.

Sok Polynn plays Nuon, the Travelling Wedding Musician. Polynn has worked since 1992 as a professor at the fine art secondary school, training students in acting and performing for classical and local productions. He previously played the leader of a group of prisoners in a Japanese-American co-production, appeared in the CBN-produced "A Thousand Years of Killing Fields," and acted in local spots for the Ministry of Health and the Cambodian Women's Center.

Ran Lun plays the Ghost, the local version of the supernatural 'Arb.' A longtime participant in Camerado SE Asia projects, she made her onscreen debut in 'Freedom Deal.' She hails from the Cambodian countryside, where some still claim to see 'Arbs' to this day.

Sok Socheat plays the Lon Nol Commanding Officer. Socheat has worked for over a decade with the Senate of the Kingdom of Cambodia, currently as Director of the Legal Department of the Secretariat General. He originally joined the project as a provider of period vehicles, but showed a natural aptitude for acting and was cast on the spot.

Pran Sareoun plays the Jeep Driver.
Chum Sameth plays the Bicycle Man Refugee.
Nin, Jay, Pen, Vanny, and Uncle Oun appear as Refugees.

Crew & Advisors

Jason Rosette, known as 'Jack RO,' is the writer, editor, cinematographer, and director. He holds a BFA from New York University in Film and TV and an MA in Development Studies from the Royal University of Phnom Penh. His filmography also includes the award-winning New York documentary 'BookWars' ("Terrific" - LA Times; "Superb" - New York Film Critics Circle) and the feature road movie 'Lost in New Mexico' ("Great Road Pic" - Angelika Entertainment; "Recommended" - Library Journal). He is the founder and co-organizer of CamboFest, Cambodia's first international film festival since the end of the Khmer Rouge regime, and of the regional ASEAN festival event Bangkok IndieFest. Full filmography at jasonrosette.com.

Phun Sokunthearith, also known as "Rith" or "Mr. Tol," served as Assistant Director, Co-Director, and Translator. Associated with Camerado SE Asia since 2008, he co-organized CamboFest and was invited to the DW Akademie Deutsche Welle film festival training program at the Berlin Film Festival and Market in 2010.

Tieng Ratha served as Sound Recordist, Associate Producer, and Fixer/Translator, drawing on his experience as an audio technician at the Pannasastra University Radio Talk Show.

Judy Henry, Consulting Producer, held the same role on Rosette's earlier feature, 'Lost in New Mexico.' Her other producing credits include the short film 'Becoming Bardo' and the television movie 'Replacing Dad.'

Alec Ceschi, Co-Producer, is based in London, where he runs both production and post-production companies, with a background in documentary filmmaking, television, and drama.

Mihyun Kim, Composer, is from Korea and studied at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. She is based in Los Angeles and remains active composing original music for film and other media.

Michael Martin, Visual Effects, is a First Nations Canadian from Toronto working across 3D animation, graphic design, video editing, and digital compositing.

Princess Soma Norodom served as Local Publicity and Outreach, Cambodia Advisor. Born in Phnom Penh in 1969, she and her family settled in Long Beach, California, in 1975. She holds a degree in Telecommunications and Journalism and completed a Master's in Mass Communication at California State University, Fresno, before returning to Cambodia in 2010.

Robert "Bob" Lewis served as US Period Story and Music Consultant. A founding member of DEVO, alongside Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob graduated from Kent State University shortly after the May 4, 1970 shootings there.

Yvon Hem served as Project Advisor. A pioneering figure of the "Golden Age" of Cambodian cinema, he worked as a set designer on Marcel Camus's L'oiseau de paradis (1962) and went on to direct some of the most beloved films of 1960s and early 1970s Khmer cinema, including Sovannahong and Abul Kasem. Yvon passed away in August 2012.

Arnold E. Toole, Legal Advisor, has practiced law since 1992 with extensive experience in Southeast Asia, concentrating on corporate, commercial, entertainment, and employment law.

Kami Lennox, International Outreach and Development Associate.

Matthew Caron, Cambodian Music Consultant, is a Brooklyn based writer, filmmaker, and visual artist, and a key researcher for filmmaker John Pirozzi's "Don't Think I've Forgotten (Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll)."

Peng Sokenin served as Associate Producer.

Full Credits

Written, Edited, and Directed by Jason 'Jack RO' Rosette
Co-Produced by Alec Ceschi
Cinematography by Jason Rosette
Consulting Producer Judy Henry
Original Compositions Mi Hyun Kim
Tro Khmer Music Toeu Vorn
Visual FX Michael Martin
Assistant Director & Translator Phun Sokunthearith
Location Sound & Coordinator Tieng Ratha
Transportation Suong Sambath & Pran Sareoun
Local Publicity and Outreach, Cambodia Soma Norodom
International Outreach & Development Associate Kami Lennox
Associate Producer Peng Sokenin

Thanks to the Village Chief Gong Lien and to the Cambodia Daily newspaper. Some sound effects courtesy of FreeSFX. Permits through the Department of Cinema and Diffusion, Ministry of Culture and Fine Art, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Details

• Runtime: 24 minutes, 56 seconds
• Release Date: 2013
• Countries: Cambodia, USA
• Languages: English, Khmer
• Genre: Dramatic Fiction, War, Supernatural
• Production Company: Camerado SE Asia
• Copyright 2013 Jason Rosette & Camerado SE Asia