Cambodge : Interview with Amazing and Surprising Lou, From Adoption to Cultural TrailblazerLou Bensimon

With a life marked by both pain and joy, Lou—who today refuses to teach dance lessons herself in favor of more needy local teachers—chose to humbly share her unusual journey with Cambodge Mag, full of gratitude.

Lou Bensimon

With a life marked by both pain and joy, Lou—who today refuses to teach dance lessons herself in favor of more needy local teachers—chose to humbly share her unusual journey with Cambodge Mag, full of gratitude.

Born in Phnom Penh, you grew up in a close-knit family. Can you describe it?

From my childhood memories, I retain the image of a united and happy family, despite recurring material needs. We lived in Boeung Kak, a very lively neighborhood where my grandfather was the district chief.

At age 6, you were selected in a casting organized by an orphanage. Tell us about that episode!

My older brother, having heard about this casting, came to pick me up so I could participate... and I was selected! Upon arriving at the orphanage, they weighed me, then asked me to speak.

Shortly after, I learned I had been chosen for the role. For the film, I had to learn to count in French up to ten, as well as recite the French alphabet. It was Madame Phan, who worked at the orphanage, who taught me all that. Thanks to her, I learned my first French words, without yet knowing that this experience would mark the beginning of a long path between two cultures and two lives.

You were thus chosen for the film Holy Lola by Bertrand Tavernier. How did the filming go, and who did you meet there?

It was my first encounter with my future adoptive mother: actress Corine Thézier, who played the role of my adoptive mother in Holy Lola.

This film about adoption follows the journey of a French couple unable to have a child who decides to come to Cambodia to adopt a baby. I have a very strong memory of that first meeting. The production had given me a beautiful big doll: it was the very first doll of my life.

Shortly after, your biological mother dies from a serious illness. Then your father remarries. How does your life unfold then?

At age nine, my mother died from a serious illness, on the way to the hospital, on a motorcycle, between my brother and my sister-in-law. My life turned upside down from that tragic moment. My father got back together with someone, hoping his new wife would take care of me.

But life decided otherwise. I found myself selling fish at the market every day and living in a dark shared apartment with her two daughters. My relationship with school became fragile, and my childlike state changed to survival mode.

Photos above: Lou with her Khmer family

You reach age 13. You then decide to take a long trip. Where to, and why?

At age thirteen, Corine Thézier and her husband Robert Bensimon (whom she had brought to meet me about two years after our filming) invited me to France for the summer holidays so I could attend a French course. About five years had passed since our last meeting, despite maintaining constant contact, including sending clothes, gifts, or school supplies. It was August 3, 2009.

The trip was supposed to last three months. I left Cambodia with a simple bag filled only with new clothes. Upon arriving at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport very early in the morning, I ran toward them shouting "Mom!" (I had called them mom and dad since I was six, from the film Holy Lola.)

You make a decision there that will change the course of your life. What is it?

Those three months in France were beneficial. From Paris to Valence, I saw the sea for the first time in my life, I took swimming lessons for the first time in the Mediterranean. But despite these discoveries, the goal remained clear: learning French. Every day, morning and afternoon, we worked on it.

But at that time, my hands were very damaged from the work my stepmother made me do. They understood that my life in Cambodia had become very difficult. They contacted my father to ask if he wanted me to stay in France. He replied that he wished for me a better future, a wish shared by his late wife. The procedures were started, and this trip became the turning point of my entire life.

What is your father's reaction to this decision?

Out of love for me, and so I could have a better life, he chose to let me grow up in France—a silent but deeply courageous sacrifice.

Actors Robert Bensimon and Corine Thézier then become your official new family. What are your first best memories?

My first memories with them are above all linked to discovering a life I had never known: vacations, the gentleness of daily life, good food, and the feeling of security. Then learning French: Robert Bensimon worked on the language with me every day, and Corine Thézier provided unwavering support. We went on vacation every year, often to the sea in Hyères.

Right upon my arrival in France, my adoptive mother also got me into her film agency, Georges Lambert's agency. Very quickly, I had the opportunity to act in the film Jalouse, directed by David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos, alongside actress Karin Viard. That was my very first experience in French cinema. This early immersion in the French artistic world has definitively shaped the place I build for myself today between culture, transmission, and creation.

Photos above: Lou in children's advertisements

How did you get into Khmer classical dance?

My adoptive parents are artists first and foremost. They run two theater companies in France, teach theater in high school, middle school, and university, and are also film actors. Culture naturally holds a place in their lifestyle.

So, by extension, to ensure I was never cut off from my original culture and language, they took this initiative. After much research, Corine Thézier discovered classes offered at the Maison du Cambodge at the Cité universitaire. After trying various disciplines, I chose Khmer classical dance.

Tell us about your French schooling

When I arrived in France, I was thirteen and barely spoke French. My adoptive parents chose to enroll me in a self-managed middle school, Collège Decroly, which I joined mid-year in January, in sixth grade. Despite the language barrier and late arrival, I continued my schooling normally and obtained my middle school certificate with honors.

I then joined Lycée Maurice Ravel, where I also got my baccalaureate with honors. After the bac, I entered INALCO (Langues O') until obtaining a master's in Foreign Language and Civilization Studies, Khmer, with a focus on International Relations. I also hold another master's in Intercultural Marketing and Communication.

What extraordinary work did you do at BULAC?

During my university years at INALCO, thanks to the support of Professor Michel Antelme, I had the opportunity to hold a key position at BULAC, the University Library of Languages and Civilizations, directly attached to INALCO.

My tasks involved cataloging, selecting, and acquiring books, building and archiving the entire documentary collection related to Cambodia, as well as hosting official visits around this collection, including that of the Education Minister at the time. This even led to an interview on French international radio RFI. In parallel, I provided interpretation services for film screenings organized in the BULAC and INALCO auditoriums.

at the University Library of Languages and Civilizations

Mission completed and COVID period over, you dive into social media. What do you create?

Once my BULAC mission ended and my studies finished, I continued teaching Khmer for several years, including at the university. In parallel, I gave private lessons, first via platforms, then quickly by word of mouth. Gradually, people started contacting me directly to learn Khmer. During the COVID period, social media became an essential space for connection and transmission.

I then decided to create an Instagram account to promote my platform dedicated to learning Khmer. I chose the name Rean Khmer, which means "learn Khmer." I designed simple, accessible educational visuals, shared across different social networks. One of them, filmed in front of Angkor Wat, went unexpectedly viral, and I realized there was real interest and need. Rean Khmer, born from a difficult period, suddenly became a deeply vibrant project at the crossroads of language, culture, and human connection.

Then in 2023, you return to Cambodia accompanied by your mom Corine Thézier. What happens when you get off the plane?

In November 2023, my dance school in France, Selepak Khmer, took us to Cambodia for a ten-day stay to attend a dance workshop at the Royal University of Fine Arts Cambodia and participate in a documentary on ancient dances. I invited my adoptive mother, Corine Thézier, to come with me to discover dance in Cambodia.

But upon getting off the plane, with my biological father there to welcome me, I immediately noticed his big toe was black and necrotic. Despite the jet lag, I called one of my students, a chief anesthesiologist in a Phnom Penh hospital. The doctors spoke of a possible amputation prognosis. I decided to stay to follow his recovery and provide all my support.

What actions do you then take to address this new situation?

That's when a very intense period began: dance workshops in the morning at the School of Fine Arts, and hospital visits the rest of the time. This return to Cambodia, meant to be temporary, became a definitive anchor point. Upon stepping off that plane, without realizing it yet, I understood my place was here.

Since then, you are now settled in Phnom Penh. What are your main activities currently?

I'm settled in Phnom Penh, but I return to France every summer, and occasionally in winter. When I decided to settle in Phnom Penh, I was offered a part-time French teaching position at the Canadian International School (CIS). I taught French in English there for a year.

In parallel, I continued developing my own courses on the Rean Khmer platform. After that year, I chose to leave CIS to fully dedicate myself to Rean Khmer. Meanwhile, I continue my artistic work as a dancer.

Khmer Dancer

You are particularly passionate about the 7th art. Do you have any projects underway?

Since returning to Cambodia, I've also had the opportunity to act in several film projects. I was notably cast in the lead role of the film So… My Darling, directed by Monysak Sou, produced by Anti-Archive (founded by Davy Chou), with a release coming soon. Right now, I'm involved in two shoots: Echoes by Henry Thach, and SEDA by Jean-Baptiste Phou, projects entirely filmed and performed in Khmer.

What are your main goals to date?

Today, my main goals are artistic, cultural, and deeply personal. I'm in a phase where I want to refine my artistic direction, voice, and identity, while staying true to who I am and my journey. One of my major commitments is highlighting and transmitting the Khmer language.

In this vein, I want to fully develop Rean Khmer and unlock its full potential. Beyond a language learning system, I envision Rean Khmer as a true cultural ecosystem. In parallel, I want to explore my artistic side more, taking on more demanding, embodied roles and fully committing to them. I still make room for Khmer classical dance, as it remains a huge source of inspiration and strength for me.

How do you see Rean Khmer in the future?

I see Rean Khmer as a project in full expansion, destined to become much more than a simple language course platform. Its logical evolution, in my view, is international, to transmit Khmer language and culture to diverse audiences. In the short and medium term, I want to develop more group classes, especially online, to reach a wider audience and create real group dynamics among learners.

In the longer term, I imagine creating Rean Khmer Studio, a space dedicated to autonomous and creative educational content, such as structured learning videos, thematic packs, audio and visual supports. Learners could buy and use them at their own pace, wherever they are in the world. I also want to open Rean Khmer to more cultural and conversational formats, like podcasts.

With Karin Viard

You are definitely a multidisciplinary person. But do you have a preference?

It's true that I don't do anything lightly. Dance, I've practiced since I was fifteen. I don't consider myself a professional dancer, but I love it deeply. Cinema, on the other hand, has been part of my life since childhood. I know shoots, their rhythm, their demands. It's a world where I feel deeply in place. I also love theater a lot, even if I talk about it less: I grew up in it.

As for teaching Khmer, it's a lifelong commitment. As those close to me often say, I also have a real businesswoman side: I love organizing, planning, creating projects, thinking marketing, building platforms, developing a long-term vision. So if I had to talk about a preference, I'd say cinema and theater hold a very special place in my heart.

Finally, if today you had to describe yourself in a few sentences, which ones would they be?

Today, I would describe myself as a courageous, deeply sincere, and generous person. I can sometimes be clumsy or too intense, sometimes tired, but when I commit, I always do it with heart and depth.

I grew up between two countries, two cultures, and I feel fully both: deeply Khmer in my gestures, sensitivity, way of being, and deeply French in my values, attachment to the language, and what France has given me.

An interview by Chantha R (Françoise Framboise)