Homo Sive Natura

A forty-year-old businessman from Phnom Penh is sent to the remote forests of
Ratanakiri to gather intelligence for a planned land expropriation.
But an unexpected bond with the local community forces him to confront the
irreversible consequences of his actions.

The main character is unnamed: a 40 y.o. business man (here named M.) from the capital of Phnom Penh, sent on an assignment to gather informations for a possible land expropriation in the remote forests of Ratanakiri Province, East of Cambodia. This practice has vamped over the last two decades under the pretext that, by acquiring land under the control of private enterprises (which turn out to be catastrophic for the environment), more job opportunities can be generated to local communities. This is indeed the belief of M. whose early approach is to disregard the local customs and his main drive is that of completing his job, quickly and efficiently, confident that through his work everyone can claim a win.

Aware that his purposes are nonetheless incomprehensible to the locals, M. decides to gather the informations needed while disguising himself as a tourist merely interested in discovering the lives of his Indigenous ‘brothers’. This is well received by his newly acquired friend, Sall, a 40 y.o local farmer who welcomes M. into his village and offers to guide him in exploring the
hidden corners of the region.

From the very early days, M. encounters many villagers whilst being exposedto religious  traditions and agricultural practices. This provides him with the necessary data to fulfil his boss’s demands, yet remaining unaware that this experience is igniting a newfound fascination with these people.

Just when pressure from the company mounts, and M. intends to buy some time to find better diplomatic ways to expropriate the land, his real plans are discovered by Sall, which rapidly abandons him to alert his village of the risk of a possible invasion by wood loggers.

M.’s realisation of the importance of the land for this people has come too late as the circumstances his action has triggered produce an irreversible chain of events.