Angkor — SOS in the jungle

Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

January 2011 •English

Between April, 1975 and January, 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people in Cambodia. A quarter of the population were wiped out in one of the most brutal and virulent genocides of the twentieth century. This new film explores the life of Pol Pot, the ever-smiling, obsessively secretive leader of the Khmer Rouge. What drove him to inflict such a radical experiment on his own people? How did the Khmer Rouge turn from a band of nationalist revolutionaries into a ruthless killing machine? And why did the West stand by and let it happen?
 As an international tribunal in Cambodia finally brings the surviving leaders of the Khmer Rouge to justice, it's time to re-examine the gruesome legacy of Pol Pot.

The Missing Picture

November 2013 •French

Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

Journey Into Buddhism: Prajna Earth

September 2007 •English

Prajna is the Sanskrit word for radiant wisdom, and yatra is the word for pilgrimage or spiritual journey. This visually stunning documentary is a cinematic pilgrimage exploring the lost civilization of Angkor in Cambodia, including the largest temple in the world, the magnificent Angkor Wat. The journey continues to sacred sites of the natural world, Hindu Bali, jungles of Java, and discovering Buddhist Borobudur. A John Bush film.

Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor

April 2006 •English

One of the mythic journeys of our time, through the exquisite, complicated, surprising terrain of Vietnam and Cambodia to the great ruins at Angkor - the magnificent Khmer temples being painstakingly restored deep in the Cambodian jungle. It is a high definition odyssey up a river far distanced in time from the corridor into the heart of darkness portrayed in Francis Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." In Angkor, the World Monuments Fund's John Stubbs and John Sanday describe their 15-year restoration of one of the jewels of a city called "the eighth wonder of the world." As we go inside the 12th Century temple complex of Preah Khan, along with the other major sites of Angkor Wat, Bayon and Banteay Srei, we learn that the story of their work in Angkor is not only a story of the rebirth of Angkor after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge Era, but it also is a story of the rebirth of Cambodia.

Respoken

October 2024 •Khmer

Short-documentary about a visionary actor and his team fight to revive Lakhon Niyeay (Spoken Theater) in Cambodia, facing personal and professional challenges, as he prepares for a major show after six years amidst an uncertain future.

Side by Side

August 2021 •Khmer

Through daily routines in a rural village, an indigenous elder couple recall their strange marriage to their grand-daughter, and sometimes to each other, in the changing rhythm of nature around them.

Cambodia: The Prince And The Prophecy

January 1986 •English

CAMBODIA: THE PRINCE AND THE PROPHECY explores the years of Prince Norodom Sihanouk’s rule, his juggling for peace, his charisma and contradictions. Following the Prince’s overthrow in 1970, the film traces Cambodia’s destruction during the five years of war before Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge came to power and launched their revolution… As a central theme, the film and its sequel CAMBODIA/KAMPUCHEA feature exclusive interviews with Prince Sihanouk, and focus on his pivotal role in shaping Cambodia’s fate.

Cambodia/Kampuchea

January 1986 •English

CAMBODIA/KAMPUCHEA draws on unique propaganda film and archival material from the Khmer Rouge, Vietnam and other sources. This is set against the grim realities of the Kampuchean tragedy. As a continuing theme, the film features exclusive interviews with Prince Sihanouk, who offers explanations for and insights into the role he has played in the fate of his luckless country. This definitive film study delves to the roots of the conflict, making sense of the madness, the politics and contradictions. It captures the epic spirit and passions of a people when a whole world is overturned.

Narratives of Modern Genocide

January 2021 •English

Narratives of Modern Genocide challenges the audience to experience first-person accounts of survivors of genocide. Sichan Siv and Gilbert Tuhabonye share how they escaped the killing fields of Cambodia, and the massacre of school children in Burundi. Mixing haunting animation, and expert context the film confronts our notion that the holocaust was the last genocide.

Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers

March 2007 •English

During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.

Defending Brother No.2

September 2017 •Dutch

Two Dutch lawyers, Michiel Pestman and Victor Koppe, travel to Cambodia in 2011 to defend Nuon Chea in an international tribunal. Nuon Chea, also known as Brother No. 2, was the second man after Pol Pot in the Khmer Rouge regime. He is being charged with mass murder and crimes against humanity. For four years, the documentary follows the lawyers in their attempt to give this man a fair trial, but the UN tribunal is beset by local interests and a government which consists partly of other former members of the Khmer Rouge who would really like all of the blame to rest solely on the defendant. What should've been the crowning achievement in the careers of the lawyers turns out very different.

À la Poursuite des Pilleurs de Temples

September 2014 •French

In 1972, during Cambodia's civil war, a sandstone statue was torn from the age-old Koh Ker temple. Measuring 1.58m high and weighing 110 kilos, it depicts a prince and belongs to a collection that retraces the epic of the Mahabharata. The sculpture was first sold at auction in London in 1975, via a strange British art dealer based in Bangkok, and reappeared in 2011 at Sotheby's in New York with a bid of $2.5 million. A sale that was ultimately prohibited. In the meantime, experts from the École française d'Extrême-Orient, an American lawyer commissioned by Phnom Penh and UNESCO mobilized the Heritage Police across the Atlantic to denounce the theft of a cultural asset. In 2013, the work was returned to Cambodia. A captivating investigation into the international mafia of antiquities trafficking.

Kampuchea inför kriget

October 1978 •Swedish

Documentary about Cambodia featuring a long interview with Pol Pot

Angkor et Les Mystères de L'Empire Khmer

November 2022 •French

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

May 2003 •French

Documentary of the S-21 genocide prison in Phnom Penh with interviews of prisoners and guards. On the search for reasons why this could have happened.

The Donut King

August 2020 •English

Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy builds a multi-million dollar empire by baking America's favourite pastry: the doughnut.

High Point Summer

February 2018 •English

It's Seattle 2006: A refugee teenager from Cambodia begins recording a video diary early in the summer to explain the meaning of "thug life." But ultimately his summer is defined by tragedy. Awarded Best Documentary at the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival 2019

The Bamboo Bridge

October 2019 •Khmer

This documentary looks at the stories that take place around a unique 1.5 kilometre long bamboo bridge that for generations has been built every year following the rhythms of nature across the Mekong River to join the rural community of Koh Paen to the city of Kampong Cham in Cambodia.

Il a besoin

January 1981 •French

Bomb Hunters

August 2006 •English

Bomb Hunters is an engrossing examination of the micro-economy that has emerged in Cambodia from untrained civilians harvesting unexploded bombs as scrap metal. The film explores the long-term consequences of war and genocide in an attempt to understand the social, cultural, and historical context and experiences of rural villagers who seek out and dismantle UXO (unexploded ordnance) for profit. Part of a global economy, these individuals clear UXO from their land in order to protect their families from harm and to earn enough money to survive. Bomb Hunters is an eye-opening account investigating the on-going residual, persistent effects of war experienced by post-conflict nations around the globe, and the complex realities of achieving "peace".