The White Building, an iconic structure home to 493 families in Phnom Penh, faces demolition. In the building’s final days, director Kavich Neang follows his own family and neighbors as they pack belongings, share memories and anxieties, and eventually move out before the building’s total destruction.
One decade after Cambodia’s independence and amid a movement of New Khmer Architecture, the Municipal Apartments, also known as the White Building, were constructed. The housing block bore witness to a tremendous series of events: the young nation’s Golden Age; a traumatic breakdown under a radical regime; decades of cultural revival centered within its walls; and the rapid pace of capitalist development that ultimately led to its demise. Upon learning that the residing families of the White Building have agreed to vacate the building for a condo development, director Kavich Neang, who was raised inside its walls, films the final days of the historic modernist structure amid its demolition. He documents the departure of his own family and two long-time neighbors, as well as the other residents, as they move out from the greying white building, and bid farewell to the place they long called home. Only memory remains.
