Looking forward

In just over an hour I'll be at Meta House listening to Nic Dunlop, the journalist who tracked down the S-21 commandant Comrade Duch to a small town in Cambodia's northwestern boondocks, and who is now the man at the center of the country's first Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which has been continuing this week. Dunlop exposed the full story of Duch in his excellent book The Lost Executioner and tonight's short film and Q&A will give Phnom Penhites the opportunity to find out more from the man himself. Tomorrow night, Francois Ponchaud is continuing his lectures in English at the Catholic Communications office on St 242 on the history of Cambodia, with his focus this week on the Lon Nol Regime and the years 1970-75 (start 6.30pm). The third event of interest for me this week will be a performance by the Sovanna Phum team on Friday and Saturday of Roussey Dek, a mixed creation of Shadow puppetry, dance, circus and live traditional Khmer orchestra, that first premiered in London of all places in 2003. It's pure Khmer and sounds like a winner to me. Performances begin at 7.30pm at the Sovanna Phum Theatre on St 360.