innocence as world heritage: an interview with ilaria borrelli

children at the muslim village in koh kong, cambodia, where we shot some scenes - ph: stefania fumo

Stef interviewed Ilaria about her new film Talking To The Trees, in which a Western woman has to face the fact that her husband is a child sex tourist. Here is a part of that interview.

Tell us about Cambodia. What struck you the most? What did you learn?

Cambodians are a very sweet, very gentle people and maybe this is why it’s so easy to lure children there into prostitution and in general, to lure people into illicit activities. I’ve thought a lot about this sweetness of theirs, which as Westerners we find so pleasing. Sadly, guilelessness and simplicity can also be a misfortune. You have to learn to defend yourself in life; to be conscious of the horrors that human beings are capable of.

It would be nice if the stronger, more industrialized countries could realize that this openness and naiveté that still survives in some places in the world should be protected on a global level. I’m thinking of the Tibetans, the Burmese, and the Nuba, in Sudan. All of them populations that are being slaughtered, purely for economic gain.

But once we’ve wiped out every last sweet and peace-loving people on earth, that innocence, that cleansing example, will be lost to us forever. We will no longer be able to reconnect with the more beautiful and spiritual part of ourselves. The only ones left will be the cynical, ruthless, materialistic cultures, and we will all be sentenced to becoming more and more monstrous. (SF)