Cambodia’s King Sihanouk, who ‘would have rather been Clark Gable’, made more than 50 films

Filmmaking in Cambodia has always been a low-key affair – but it does come with the royal seal of approval. That’s because the country’s late King Norodom Sihanouk, who died in 2012 at the age of 89, was a prolific filmmaker who made around 50 films from the 1940s to the 2000s.

Sihanouk’s films, which were shot in 16mm, 35mm, and later on video, covered a range of topics including Cambodian politics, but his main focus was always clear – to promote and preserve traditional Khmer (Cambodian) culture. “I’m not interested in commercialising my films,” he told me in a statement in 1996, “I’m just interested in telling the story, history and culture of the Khmer people.”

Although they often feature scenic spots like Angkor Wat, Sihanouk’s films were not travelogues aimed at tourists or film festival attendees – they usually made a point about Khmer history and politics, and were intended to be seen by local viewers. An Ambition Returned to Ashes is a case in point. Like his 1993 film To See Angkor and Die, 1995’s An Ambition Returned to Ashes combines aspects of Khmer history with modern Cambodia to make a point about the political ambition that had torn the country apart for decades.

The film unfolds poetically like a folk myth. It tells the story of a prince who has managed to live for 150 years with the help of a sorcerer, and the Buddhist monk who plots to illegally install him on the Khmer throne. “An unbridled ambition does not hoist us up to the helm, but rather takes us down to a tragic end,” Sihanouk states at the start of the film.

Although his later works were lyrical, that was not always the case. Shadow on Angkor, made in 1968, was a contemporary drama about a Cambodian military plot to overthrow the king – the coup, aided by the CIA, fails but the film hints that the plotters may succeed if they try again.