History & Cinema: The long and distinguished career of Dy Saveth

Dy Saveth is one of the most popular actresses in Cambodian cinema of the 1960s—and one of the few to have escaped death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. The former beauty queen, still radiant, never fails to grace major cinema events such as the Cambodia International Film Festival with her magical presence.

It's 1971, and Dy Saveth is a star, not only in Cambodia but throughout Southeast Asia. She's the star of hit films such as The Snake King's Wife and The Crocodile

After spending 18 years in France, Dy Saveth returned to Cambodia in 1993 and has since become a regular in Cambodian films and television, while inspiring a new generation of actresses as a teacher at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Today, the actress boasts an astonishing figure and extraordinary natural class, just as she did in her early years as a star of the silver screen.

At the International Film Festival in Cambodia

Her colorful apartment is filled with mementos from her films. It's not hard to picture her in the exuberant lead role of “The Snake King's Wife,” one of the many roles she admits she had trouble seeing herself play on screen.

When King Norodom Sihanouk asked her to star in his film Twilight in 1969, she felt her already growing fame rise another notch. Her grandmother and sisters had been dancers at the Royal Palace, but appearing alongside the king was a challenge for a young actress.

“I was worried,” she says. “I thought the King was unapproachable and I didn't know what to do or how to act... I had to think about how to act all the time. But from the very beginning, he was just a normal person.

”He didn't scare me. He knew that being King was intimidating, so he made an effort to act normal. "

Career

Growing up in Phnom Penh in the 1950s and a fan of foreign films, Saveth never expected to pursue a career as a film actress. She entered the industry reluctantly after winning the Miss Cambodia pageant at the age of 19, and her dreams of becoming an artist quickly took hold.

At the time, an incredibly prolific production of local and foreign films contributed to the development of an unparalleled era of Cambodian cinema. Phnom Penh's movie theaters showed a steady stream of popular films starring Dy Saveth and a host of charismatic stars, all embodying the cosmopolitanism and enthusiasm of Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s.

The films were fresh and contemporary, while remaining true to typical Khmer themes. In the strange and wonderful Snake Girl (1974), Saveth lets live snakes slither suggestively over her body, accompanied by upbeat jazz music. This film is one of many films on the theme of reptiles, following Snake King's Daughter, which was an international success.

“I came up with the story with my husband. We tried to create something different and strange,” she said.

Another director later attempted a remake of the film, but was unwilling to recreate the original headdress made from dozens of live baby snakes that Saveth wore in her version.

“I thought maybe I wasn't cut out for acting, but after a while, I just listened to the director and followed his instructions,” she says of her early films. "

After that, I became more and more famous and my films were big hits... I was calm, but I wondered why so many people liked these films."

The walls of her apartment in Phnom Penh are covered with hundreds of photos and old movie posters from the last four decades. The photos are not a tribute to her career, she says, but a testament to Khmer cinema as a whole.

“They are proof that I was an artist. If I didn't have these photos, I wouldn't have any proof that I was an actress at the time. When I was in France, I never told anyone about my career because I had no proof... they wouldn't have believed me,” she says.

Exile

When the Khmer Rouge took power, Saveth was abroad, looking for filming locations after the American bombings made filming in Cambodia far too dangerous. She fled to France with her two children and ended up in Nice, where she lived for 18 years.

“I took a few photos with me, but not many. I left thousands more at home, in lots of boxes. They had completely disappeared. I rediscovered them thanks to friends in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, everywhere, and then Khmer friends who had kept photos. I also found some on Facebook.”

For years, she had little news of Cambodia, of the fate of her friends and family. Four of her brothers and sisters had perished.

“At first, I kept a cool head and did my best to live in France, adopt the culture, and settle into the system, hoping that one day I would return to Cambodia,” she says.

“There was a little hope in my heart that I would be back in Cambodia.”

Fearing that everything she knew had been wiped out, Saveth returned to the country with trepidation. Her first trip back ended at the Thai border, where she hired a tuk-tuk and gazed at the mountains of Cambodia, not daring to cross.

Shortly afterwards, in 1985, she decided to return for just two weeks, wearing a hat, glasses and a mask to avoid being recognized, and cycled around Phnom Penh.

“When I set foot in the country, I felt like I was back home again. I decided to rent a house, but I didn't tell anyone so I could find out how people lived... I was shocked by all the landmine victims and blind people on the streets. It made me so sad.”

A year later, she returned for a month, not convinced that anyone would remember her for her film roles. Everything changed when she saw a house on fire in Phnom Penh. She wondered why the fire department and police hadn't responded.

“But all I could see were people with buckets of water throwing them at the house. I started shouting, ‘Why don’t you call the police?’ As I was shouting, someone behind me said, ‘Dy Saveth?’”

I stood still, didn't turn around, and thought, ‘Who knows me? Who could see me from behind and recognize me?’ The man said, ‘Ms. Saveth, when did you return to Cambodia?’

The stranger worked for Cambodian national television and arranged for her to be interviewed on TV.

“After that, people knew I was alive. If he hadn’t met me, I might still be anonymous!”

Today, the former star teaches at the Royal University of Fine Arts and promotes the next generation of filmmakers whenever she can.

“All my experience comes from being a stage artist at the time, so the only thing I can do to help my country is to share my experience with the younger generation, with my students,” she says.

The Last Reel

Regarding her participation in the 2014 film The Last Reel, Dy Saveth says:

“I liked the script because it's a true story, not a copy. Today, on television, many Cambodian films simply copy stories from abroad, from Thailand, China, or Vietnam. I don't know why they can't come up with their own ideas. In Cambodia, we have many stories to tell.”

With Ma Ryneth (The Last Reel)

On the similarities between herself and her character: "I was never told if the character was based on me. We are actually very different, because the actress I play stayed in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, whereas I left. If I had stayed, I would probably have been killed. I sometimes think about that, about how lucky I am. In March 1975, I went to Thailand to visit my children who were studying there. I wanted to return to Cambodia, but there were no flights. I tried to arrange a taxi and was told I was crazy, so I stayed and went to France."

When it comes to the current generation of actresses, the star doesn't mince her words: "Most of them just want to be beautiful and glamorous. They don't care much about the story. Films these days tend to avoid difficult subjects. Screenwriters focus solely on rich, modern families, not on real-life situations, such as people living in poverty. Before the Khmer Rouge, stories were about real life, about people in villages."