The Land of the Wandering Souls

This documentary follows a group of workers who are laying a high-tech fiber optic cable that will link Cambodia to the rest of Asia and Europe. The project is a hopeful symbol of the country's slow integration into the world community and the modern technological age. However, for the people employed to actually dig the trench by hand—a group of rice farmers, ex-soldiers, and their families, the poorest of the poor—the work is a mixed blessing. This film provides a haunting glimpse into the lives of these indigent workers as they encounter the painful remnants of the past—mines, bones, and a landscaped littered with human suffering—and labor to bring Cambodia into the modern age.