Direction: Jake Wachtel
Country: Cambodia / USA
Jake Wachtel’s feature debut, Karmalink, is a smoothly conducted and acceptably performed Cambodian tale that trades fire for smoke as the story evolves. Still, it's a bold combination of advanced technology, reincarnation, gentrification, and teen treasure-hunt adventure.
Mounted with lightness and grace, the story follows Leng Heng (Leng Heng Prak), a 13-year-old boy who dreams about his past lives. Those vivid dreams always bring to consciousness a missing Buddhist relic that he’s determined to find out. That powerful idea seems bigger than himself, but for that purpose, he joins forces with his best friend, Srey Leak (Srey Leak Chhith), an independent, recently homeless young girl with acute detective instincts.
Between an embarrassing naivety and beautiful narrative intentions, the film is bold in the concept but a bit timid in the result. It turns out to be visually interesting, honorably fulfilling the specifications of good entertainment, and yet, the dynamics are not without ups and downs. It can still be engaging, especially due to a curious futuristic setting defined by a mix of mundane and unworldly elements. The key here is to keep things moving without letting the complications weigh down the intentional direction of the story.
Karmalink has other great things besides its title: it’s Cambodia’s first sci-fi film, with an apt direction, and Robert Leitzell's top cinematography guaranteeing a spot-on control of color and light.
