On Saturday afternoon (3 December 2016) I caught the final screening of ‘Ruin’ at ACMI. This Australian film is filmed and set entirely in Cambodia and although described as a ‘romance’, it’s a very bleak one. A volatile, violent young man meets a very young prostitute who has escaped from her pimp who bashes her and threatens to kill her. In a gritty, violent road movie- or more correctly, river movie- and in the midst of brutality and exploitation, they gradually fall in love. If you watch the trailer, you’ll see that there’s lots of slow-motion shots, lots of water, a nausea-inducing hand-held camera throughout and unsettling, droning music. I suspect that it’s going to stay with me for far longer than I want it to.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 