My Mother is Arb

My Mother is Arb
The Cambodian film poster.
Starring	Chan Dara thy
Distributed by	Light Khmer films Production
Release date(s)	1980
Country	Cambodia
Language	Khmer

My Mother is Arb (Khmer: កូនអើយ ម្តាយអាប" , Konm Eak Madia Arb, also Krasue Mom ) is a Cambodian horror film.^[1]

Background

This Khmer folklore-based movie was produced shortly after the fall of Pol Pot's destructive Democratic Kampuchea regime, during the painful rebuilding of Cambodian cultural life in the pro-Soviet People's Republic of Kampuchea. Since the Khmer Rouge had suppressed and persecuted Khmer folklore,^[2] this movie —which went back to the roots of traditional popular legends— became an immediate success with the Cambodian public after the long years of cultural uprooting.

Konm Eak Madia Arb has the distinction of being the first movie made in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge era.

This film is based on a Cambodian myth about a malevolent spirit called Arp. This spirit has a female head and bloody entrails instead of a body. It hovers over the ground in the night, haunting places and scaring people. The special effect of the Arp character was achieved by gluing pig's entrails to the head of a doll.

Plot

The film's story is about a young boy who lived alone with his mother in a big house on a remote location. One night he finds out his mother's well-kept secret by chance and he realizes that she is the evil spirit Arp.

After that night, the boy lives in terror. He becomes afraid that his mother will kill him any time, but pretends that he does not know his mother's secret. The boy wonders what will become of him in the future, living with malevolent Arp under the same roof and what will happen if the secret becomes known and he hears everyone say: Your mother is an Arp

References

1. ^ Khmer language movies
2. ^ Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime, 2d ed. Silkworm.