"You can only let somebody go, when you are bound to him." BONNE NUIT PAPA is a film about conciliation, connection and farewell. It documents Marina Kem's search for her doubly strange father. Strange because of his Cambodian origins, strange because of his silence. As a young man he came from Cambodia to the GDR in 1965, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, earned a doctorate, and built up a new life. Living in the GDR saved him from the homicidal Khmer Rouge regime, but being cut off from his family and culture, isolated in exile, made him lonesome. After German reunification he, like many other engineers in East Germany, lost his job. His marriage also fell apart. After that he withdrew in himself a bit more year after year. On his deathbed Ottara Kem desired to be buried in his homeland Cambodia. For his daughters it is the beginning of a journey into the unknown. They encounter love, reconciliation, and deep bond that even overcomes the horror of the Khmer Rouge. The film documents a daughter's search for her father's story. At the end she finds a new family and reconciles with her roots.
—STERNTAUCHER Filmproduktion