Experience one of the most powerful and harrowing cinematic achievements of the twentieth century on the big screen. Roland Joffés 1984 film, The Killing Fields, brings the Cambodian Civil War and its devastating aftermath into stunning, unforgettable focus through the story of New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg and his courageous local interpreter, Dith Pran.
Anchored by remarkable performances from Sam Waterston, John Malkovich, and Oscar winner Haing S Ngor, this gripping film is a profound testament to the resilience of the human spirit and an extraordinary bond of friendship forged amidst unimaginable tragedy.
This movie is about what happens when a government collapses overnight and leaves a nation to a fanatical regime.
When the American military pulls out of Phnom Penh in 1975, foreign journalists evacuate, but local reporters and fixers like Dith Pran are left behind to face the incoming Khmer Rouge. Pran stays to help cover the unfolding human catastrophe, only to be swept into the brutal labor camps of Pol Pot’s “Year Zero,” where millions were starved, worked to death, or executed for wearing glasses, speaking English, or having an education. Meanwhile, back in safety, Schanberg wages a relentless, agonizing guilt-ridden campaign for years to find out if his friend is alive and to help him escape.
It is important to watch because it is the defining cinematic document of the Cambodian genocide, a historical atrocity that the Western world largely ignored and continues to overlook. It strips away political abstractions to show the terrifying reality of totalitarian social engineering, forced rural displacement, and ideological madness up close, while honoring the courage of the local journalists whose sacrifices made the world outside finally pay attention. Join us for a special screening of this landmark historical drama—an evening of powerful storytelling, profound reflection, and enduring cinema.
1984, History, Biography, Drama
English subtitles, 2h 21min
