© DOCUMENTOURHISTORYNOW
LOTUS SPORTS CLUB
Director— Vanna Hem, Tommaso Colognese
Documentary, NED/KHM 2022—72min—18+
Khmer original version with English subtitles
FILM SPONSORSHIP
A wonderfully moving documentary that follows the football players in Cambodia‘s first queer football club.
I know exactly who I am. No one else knows me better than I do,“ says 18-year-old Leak at the beginning of Lotus Sports Club. The documentary follows him and his teammates in Cambodia‘s first queer soccer club. Coach and founder Van Sovann plays a vital role for the team: the trans* man turns soccer into a place of empowerment and creates a safer space for young, queer soccer players from all over the country.
In making this documentary, directors Vanna Hem and Tommaso Colognese followed the team over the course of five years. Their documentary deftly and gently asks what it means to find your place in this world as a queer person – both in sports and outside of it. An enthusiastic plea for solidarity, Lotus Sports Club paints a heartwarming, deeply hopeful portrait of this extraordinary team.