Lotus Sports Club

Director   Vanna Hem & Tommaso Colognese
Country   Netherlands, Cambodia
Year   2022
Languages   Central Khmer
Genre   Documentary
Running Time   72 min

Filmed over the course of five years, Lotus Sports Club is an inspiring coming-of-age story about the only LGBTQ+-inclusive soccer team in Cambodia. 61-year-old Pa Vann—the coach and father figure—established the Kampong Chhnang team in 2009 to encourage solidarity among straight, gay, and gender-diverse players. Opening his home to the more vulnerable, outcasted teenagers on the team, Pa Vann creates a safe place for them to be themselves. Full of love, empathy, and kick-ass soccer tricks, this heartfelt documentary centres around Leak, a young trans man who plays for the under-21 team and has lived under coach Pa Vann’s care for many years. As he ages out of the league, Leak must make a decision that could mean leaving behind the one person he loves the most. 

TW: The film contains scenes with transphobic and homophobic comments.

Director’s Bio

Tommaso Colognese (he/him)

Born in 1974 in Italy, Tommaso Colognese is an independent filmmaker and producer based in London. After studying filmmaking at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, Colognese has been living and working between Italy, England and the USA. His credits across the production department include major motion pictures (Nine, Inception, Hugo, Skyfall, WWZ, First They Killed My Father), independent projects such as the documentaries Suddenly Last Winter, The Labeque Way and Religulous and the award- winning sci-fi short The Nostalgist.

Vanna Hem (he/him)

Born in 1984, Cambodian documentary filmmaker Vanna Hem has established himself as one of the leading voices in Cambodia in the arena of social and LGBTQ+ films. His credits include the short-form documentaries “Lives Under the Red Light" (2014), “Karma” (2013) and “Where Do I Belong?”(2016) which have all been selected in many international film festivals. Since 2015, Vanna has been working on his first feature-length documentary Lotus Sports Club, while shooting videos for many other NGOs. He currently lives in Phnom Penh.