One of the most beautiful experiences in Phnom Penh is actually also a quite simple experience. It is the cinema. Just don’t expect one of these concrete multiplex bunkers in a shopping mall, but imagine a small house.

The only cinema in town which targets the local expats with western-orientated blockbusters, art house, kids movies, animations and the classics, is The Flicks.

When you arrive there you take the stairs to the second floor, walk through a hallway and end at a bar where there is always somebody to greet you. That’s where you pay your admission to the movie ($3.50) and of course a drink and a bucket of hot buttered popcorn. The bar is in a small lobby and connects to the movie room. Well, here you can see it:

Also here: no cinema seats. No, everything is more relaxed than that. You can lie down on two rows of comfortable soft cushions or two rows of rattan couches with pillows, and watch that 5-meter (16 feet) wide screen with an amazing sound.

Since my first visit to The Flicks I was in love. The simplicity, the fact that it was all created and organized for the love of movies and for the movie lovers even made me get the crazy idea of starting a similar cinema myself.

And then suddenly, early this March, the message came out saying that The Flicks was going to close.

Sadly we are moving from The Flicks and will be closing our cinema. It was great fun and we got to meet an amazing bunch of people from all walks of life, and we will miss it very much.

The couple that are currently running the movie house, Martin and Jeanette, can’t keep up with the cinema as they got real requirements during the day (real jobs). And that’s when it all stops.

And something like that starts nibbing on me. Very simple. This can’t be true. It shouldn’t happen. Et cetera. And after a long conversation with Martin and Jeanette it wasn’t even such a weird idea to take over The Flicks in Phnom Penh.

But come up with that large bag filled up with money that is necessary. Especially when you imagine all the equipment. And the deposit for the rent. I could never just put that bag of money on the table! And that’s when I came up with the idea of starting a little online micro-credit fundraising event. If all my Facebook-friends and Twitter-followers could lend me $10 I’d be ready to go! And it’s a loan, so after 6 months everybody gets it back.

And now you can even choose to change that loan into a donation. After 6 months that will become a micro-credit on Kiva.org, a worldwide active micro-credit organization that helps small businesses with micro-credits. A perfect good cause, don’t you agree?

So (if I haven’t spammed you about it yet in any online-personal way) check that wallet of yours and see if you can miss ten bucks. Or a bit more. Then surf to http://www.timetohelp.me, the site I have created for this purpose. Thank you very much!

The counter is currently at:

Update: I am going to buy the cinema. That’s for sure. And I am going to love it!