Promised Spaces
From a crowded worker dormitory, from an empty gated community, they face a skyline of unfinished towers.
Sleepless from the heat, Sokun leaves his crowded construction dormitory and joins a community of fellow workers living in one of many unfinished high-rises. One such tower becomes the long-awaited luxury home for its first tenant, Seda, who soon feels trapped in the vast gated complex. Blending fiction with documentary observation, real locations and non-professional actors, Promised Spaces explores how Cambodia’s urban growth transforms communities, identities and the very meaning of home.
SCREENINGS
Saturday 7 November 21:15
Sunday 8 November 16:45
Director Ivan Marković will be present for a Q&A after the screenings
Programme section(s): Out of Focus: Serbia | Cinema Current
Original title: Promised Spaces | Year: 2026 | Runtime: 78′
Country: France, Germany, Serbia, Cambodia | Language: Khmer | Subtitles: English
Cast: Vollak Kong, Vita Vong, Chea Loch, Lyer Von, Theara Or, Kanitha Tith
Director: Ivan Marković | Production: Jasmina Sijerčić – Bocalupo Films; Zsófia Lili Kovács, Ivan Marković – Fiskultura Films; Jelena Radenković – Big Time Production; Daniel Mattes – Anti-Archive | Screenplay: Ivan Marković, Tanja Šljivar | Cinematography: Katharina Hauke, Ivan Marković | Editing: Ivan Marković
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
ACID Cannes, 2026 – World Premiere | New Horizons International Film Festival, 2026 | DokuFest International Documentary and Short Film Festival, 2026 | Sarajevo Film Festival, 2026
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Ivan Marković is a filmmaker and visual artist born in Belgrade and based in Berlin. His feature and documentary films have been shown at festivals including Cannes (ACID), Berlinale, Doclisboa, Cinéma du Réel, Viennale, New Horizons, Mar del Plata and Jeonju IFF. His photography and video works have been exhibited in galleries and museums including Bethanien Berlin, Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, ICA London, Baerum Kunsthall, VAFT Turku, VideoEx Zurich, Austrian Kulturforum, Silent Green Berlin and SaSa Gallery Phnom Penh.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Promised Spaces explores how architecture embodies social segregation, isolating people across class divides. Merging fiction with real locations and non-actors, the film follows characters from different social strata – construction workers and residents of luxurious gated communities – to show Cambodia’s rapidly expanding urban landscapes. Through fragments of contradicting yet coexisting realities, it traces how speculative urban growth reshapes identities, communities and notions of home.
