STRANGLED

Garment worker Veasna bets big on her husband’s barber shop, providing her family’s land title as collateral to obtain a microfinance loan and finance his business. Soon after opening, the business goes bust and her husband runs off with his mistress, leaving her alone to face credit officers. Pherng is a trash collector living in the Cambodian border town of Poipet. The pressure from microfinance loans, paired with rent and grandchildren’s school fees, force Pherng and his wife to scour the streets for hours on end looking for trash and disposed items to resell. In the province of Ratanakiri, indigenous farmer Nga is haunted by the memory of her late husband, who committed suicide after pressure from microfinance loans became unbearable. Nga’s farmland is at risk of being confiscated to pay this outstanding debt.