| Directors | Thet Sambath, Rob Lemkin |
|---|---|
| Country | Cambodia, United Kingdom |
| Year | 2009 |
| Language | Khmer |
| Subtitles | English |
| Running time | 93 min |
Having lost his parents and brother to the Khmer Rouge regime during the late 1970s, Cambodian investigative journalist Thet Sambath embarks on a brave, decade-long quest to uncover not just how, but why the Killing Fields happened.
Spending his weekends quietly traveling into rural provinces, Sambath slowly earns the trust of low-level cadres and foot soldiers, recording unprecedented, first-hand confessions from the men and women who directly carried out mass executions.
His painstaking journey culminates in a unprecedented series of intimate, candid interviews with Nuon Chea (“Brother Number Two”), Pol Pot’s second-in-command, breaking decades of silence and obtaining the most direct historical admission of responsibility ever captured on film.
Co-directed by Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin, this profound, deeply personal investigative documentary stands as a monument of historic reconciliation and moral courage. Premiering to global acclaim, the film won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, along with top honors at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the International Documentary Association Awards, earning universal praise for its raw human insight and historical importance.
From quiet, devastating rural conversations to chilling revelations from the highest ranks of the regime, this extraordinary film offers a uniquely compassionate, eye-opening search for truth, healing, and memory.
