Actress Dy Saveth is back doing what she loves most and is working with the next generation of Khmer actors as a professor of fine arts at the Royal University of Phnom Penh
Chim
At home with Dy Saveth, actress
Written by Soeun Say
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Dy Saveth has been in the national spotlight ever since she won
Cambodia's first beauty pageant in 1959. She has acted in around 100
films in the intervening period, but it would have been many more had
her career not been interrupted by the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
That she was able to resume her career at all was due to the fact that
she and her then-husband Huoy Ken were able to escape to France as
the regime began to take control.
It wasn't until 1993 that she returned to the surprise of a nation
that had assumed that she - like more than a million others - had
perished during the years of repression under the ultra-Maoist regime.
Today, the 64-year-old is back doing what she loves most and is also
working with the next generation of Khmer actors as a professor of
fine arts at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.
She now lives in a modest penthouse apartment in Sangkat Boeun Tompoun
in Phnom Penh's Meanchey district, though her two children from her
marraige to Huoy Ken live in Paris.
Her walls are lined with memories of her past. Many of the photographs
are from the set of her many movies, but it is the photographs from
her life in France that she says move her the most. The walls are also
adorned with her own artwork, line drawings based on her experiences.
She says she likes to have her house open to nature, preferring to
open a window to cool her house rather than rely on air conditioning.
Through her bedroom windows she draws comfort from the moon and night
sky.
Plants and flowers are also important to her - she begins her day by
tending to the plants on her balcony. "I like flowers as much as life
itself,"she says. "Especially roses."
The interiors are designed in what she describes as Khmer-style.
"Because I respect my culture, I decorate in the Khmer style only,"
she says. "The modern-style is too cluttered for my tastes."
She is also fond of Khmer handicrafts, saying she likes to be
surrounded by things "made by Khmer hands".
Her Buddhist heritage is represented by a shrine in the corner of her
living room.
To relax, she is fond of having a glass of red wine in her hammock and
watching the television or listening to music. When she feels more
energetic, she practices the guitar or keyboards, or makes clothes at
her sewing machine. "I don't want to be unhappy, so I take care of
myself and do whatever I want to make my life happy," she says.
Home cooking is a key to combining health and happiness, she adds. Her
favorite dish is Khmer soup, of which she makes many different
variants, though she likes cook French food for her friends and
family.
"I learned to cook French food when I stayed in Paris for about 20
years," she says. "So, when I have free time, I invite my friends to
my home to eat."