12 Sisters(HKAFF 2019)

Made with scant resources and homespun technology in 1968, 12 Sisters could still rival any 21st century horror film with its imaginative visual effects, harrowing bloodshed, and a fantastic storyline driven by infanticide, patricide and much more besides. A key figure of the bustling "golden age" of Cambodian cinema between 1960 and 1975, director Ly Bun Yim transformed a traditional Khmer fairy tale into a psychedelic cinematic spectacle. Once considered lost amidst the ravages of the Khmer Rouge, 12 Sisters' second coming only began in 2013 when a 35mm print was rediscovered at the house of Ly's son in California, with the director eventually supervising the digitisation and resynchronisation of its original Khmer-language soundtrack in 2017.