Snake Boy
05’ 31”
| Publicity: | Eric Campbell reports on a nine-year-old boy’s love affair with a giant, killer python. The snake was just the size of a thumb when it crawled into a family’s home in a village in Cambodia. Now it’s five-metres long, weighs a hundred kilograms, and eats four live chickens a week. But it’s become the best friend of the family’s son Sambath, who rides him, pokes him, wrestles with him and even sleeps with him. “I pat and kiss it, like a husband and wife,” Sambath says. His mother is convinced the gods sent the snake to protect them. But neighbours are hoping its appetite is just for chickens. |
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| Campbell at market buying chickens | Music | 00:00 |
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| CAMPBELL: In Cambodia, it’s polite to bring a gift when you visit. | 00:06 |
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| The family I’m about to see has made a special request. Campbell: Four chickens please. CAMPBELL: They’ve asked for four fat chickens --with the feathers, but preferably dead. | 00:14 |
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| Campbell [to chickens]: Sorry, guys. | 00:29 |
| Campbell carries chickens to house | CAMPBELL: A plastic bag dripping with blood isn’t the usual greeting token. But this family can never have enough dead chooks. Inside a specially built annexe, they have one huge and hungry pet. | 00:34 |
| Campbell in house | Campbell: I don’t believe this. | 00:50 |
| Sambath lying around with python | Music | 00:51 |
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| CAMPBELL: Seven-year-old Sambath has bonded with a killer snake. He calls it Chamreun, meaning lucky. Some would say Sambath’s lucky it hasn’t crushed him. | 00:55 |
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| Giant Burmese pythons have been known to turn on their owners. But Sambath sees his pet as a lifelong friend. | 01:07 |
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| SAMBATH: I pat and kiss it. | 01:17 |
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| Like a husband and wife. | 01:21 |
| Python crawls around house | Music | 01:25 |
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| CAMPBELL: It’s not the kind of reptile you’d normally want as a house guest. When it first crawled in, it was the size of a thumb. | 01:30 |
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| Now it’s big enough to squeeze a man to death. Yet neither Sambath, nor his parents, are concerned. | 01:38 |
| Mother | MOTHER: I don’t worry at all because it reminds me of the day I had the dream. | 01:50 |
| Python crawls around house | CAMPBELL: Before Sambath was born, his mother, Kim Kinnara, dreamt a snake would come to protect them. | 02:00 |
| Family eat. Python crawls around edge of room | MOTHER: After I delivered the baby, I saw the snake came to live with him – it’s just like in a movie. | 02:09 |
| Sambath under bed with python | Since the snake has been here in our house we’ve been safe, no problems. | 02:20 |
| Lighting incense | CAMPBELL: In Buddhism, dreaming of snakes can be an omen of salvation. | 02:32 |
| Father before shrine | The family has built a shrine in Lucky’s annexe and gives daily offerings to the spirits they believe sent it. | 02:38 |
| Strangers outside house looking at python | It’s also made them local celebrities, with hundreds coming from other villages to see the python. That’s just as well, as it now takes four men to move it. | 02:46 |
| Men carry python indoors | MOTHER: Some movie directors came here, wanting to take the snake for a movie, | 03:00 |
| Mother | but my son wouldn’t let them. He was crying, and saying “No, this is my loved one. You can’t take it away.” | 03:07 |
| Python crawls over camera lens | Music | 03:18 |
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| CAMPBELL: Lucky certainly likes to play to the camera. At times I couldn’t help thinking only a mother could love it. | 03:32 |
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| Music | 03:43 |
| Mother washes python | MOTHER: Yes, I love the snake. I really like it, it’s like my daughter. | 03:49 |
| Sambath kisses snake goodbye | CAMPBELL: Well, if all this seems slightly familiar, you might be thinking of the old Rudyard Kipling story, Jungle Book, about a boy called Mowgli who goes to the jungle and meets a wise old python. After a series of adventures, the python tells him its time to leave the wild and become a man. | 04:03 |
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| And that’s the dilemma that’s now confronting Sambath and his family. | 04:22 |
| Sambath plays with snake | Music | 04:30 |
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| MOTHER: Now he’s still young, but when he’s older I want him to go and study the English language for his own future. | 04:35 |
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| He might have to go to school more than just stay around here. | 04:49 |
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| Music | 04:55 |
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| CAMPBELL: For now, every free moment is spent with his special friend. His parents have come to accept Sambath’s appetite for snake affection. The rest of the village is hoping the snake’s only appetite is for chickens. | 05:09 |
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| Music | 05:22 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Eric Campbell Editor: Simon Brynjolffssen Producer: Marianne Leitch Production Company: ABC Australia | 05:31 |