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Ros Serey Sothea Continued
It is unclear whether the couple's
relationship was to blame, or if Sothea's husband had some other dispute with
Angkar. Either way, it was known locally that Sothea had gone missing from the
irrigation building site in 1978. Like countless others, Sothea had simply
disapeared. Mr. Yim Sambath describes, "When the town people had not heard
Sothea sing any more, they suspected that she could be dead."
Tiv Heng explains that "Some people said that
they had seen Sothea riding on a cow cart with her family through Jeum Sangkae
road to a new town. People were happy that she moved to a new town, but I never
saw people who moved out to the new town return. In fact, I believed that those
who were taken by Angkar to the new town were killed. Later, I heard from town
people that Sothea was taken to be killed in the south forest in Trorphaung
Phlong."
We have a varying account of Ros Sereysothea's death that comes from one of her
surviving sisters. She claims to have knowledge that Sothea was seen in a Phnom
Penh hospital, where she was severely malnourished. According to her account,
Ros Sereysothea died in that Phnom Penh hospital just weeks before the
Vietnamese invasion.
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In the wake of Pol
Pot's genocidal rule, Sothea's music survived only on rare bootlegged
cassette tapes and vintage vinyl kept hidden during the Communist years. The
fact that many Cambodians held onto their copies of these classic songs,
despite the risk to their own lives, is a powerul tribute to the love that
the Khmer people have for Sothea and the other great musicians of the era. Today,
these recordings are gaining exposure through reissues and compilations in
Cambodia and abroad, and now over the internet in the form of MP3s.
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Classic Cambodian rock music,
including songs by Sothea, Sinn Sisamouth and others, has been featured on the
soundtrack to Matt Dillon's
movie City of Ghosts. Her
music are in the film "Don't Think I've Forgotten" documents the Cambodian rock
scene during the 60's and 70's. "The Golden Voice", a short film about the end
of Ros Sereysothea's life, has been accepted to the Beverly Hills Film Festival,
and is now available on DVD. The Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever plays in
the style of the classic Cambodian rock bands and covers some Ros Sereysothea
songs.
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