Where I Go

This psychological drama focuses on a Cambodian boy of mixed parentage, disowned by both his mother and grandmother and with an African father he never knew. This Cameroonian soldier came to Cambodia in the early 1990s as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC) and then left as quickly as he came – most likely without even knowing he had fathered a child. Searching for his roots, the now 18-year-old San Pattica confronts his family (and, incidentally, the UN) with their inability to provide him and his half-sisters with a good home, let alone a decent education. The filmmaker records those confrontations plainly. He is present, he films what he sees, and presents what is said or done without pretense or comment. The pain that the family members inflict on one another hits the viewer with full force. Empathy grows for Pattica, who grew up in a children's home and suffers daily discrimination. He would like to make something more of his life than did his addict mother, who is living on the streets with a piece of canvas for a home, or his grandmother, who is more interested in her playing cards than in her grandchildren's future.