Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Cambodia genocide film wins Cannes prize

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Cambodia genocide film wins Cannes prize

    Cambodia genocide film wins Cannes prize

    12:06 - 26.05.13


    An autobiographical French-Cambodian film, "The Missing Picture,"
    which explores the bloody history of Pol Pot's dictatorship in late
    1970s Cambodia, has won the "Un Certain Regard" prize at the Cannes
    Film Festival, The Associated Press reported.

    To rousing applause, director Rithy Panh collected the award at a
    ceremony Saturday night, expressing his gratitude to be able "to have
    the freedom to do the films I want to do."

    Panh's film, based on his nightmarish memoir "The Elimination,"
    documents his own family's experience under the heavy-handed Communist
    Party's Khmer Rouge, which resulted in the death of his parents and
    sisters.

    The "Un Certain Regard" accolade, presented one day before the Palme
    d'Or and decided by a jury of cinema insiders, rewards works from
    up-and-coming filmmakers or those that transmit original messages and
    aesthetics.

    The premise of the "missing picture" in the film is that because of
    censorship within Cambodia, no photo exists that documents the
    atrocities committed against Panh's his family and relatives during
    Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror from 1975 to 1979.

    The tale is told using old documentary footage, or whatever footage
    remained from the time, which was mainly of propaganda by the
    dictatorship. To represent his deceased relatives, Panh used hundreds
    of carefully carved clay figures.
    Director Thomas Vinterberg, who was this year's jury president, said
    he was "very honored to be awarding this prize, which we all agree is
    for a fantastic movie."

    He praised all of the 18 works, which, as well as including several
    directorial debuts, were made up of a handful from well-known
    filmmakers such as Sofia Coppola, who opened the category with "The
    Bling Ring."

    "This selection was ferociously non-sentimental but poetic
    nonetheless. It was political, highly original, sometimes disturbing,
    varied, but above all unforgettable," Vinterberg said.

    "Clay figurines, extreme beauty, violence... systematic humiliation of
    human nature... are images that will follow us for a long time...
    Moments that remain in our collective memory, a mirror of our
    existence," he added.

    The "Jury Prize," the category's secondary award, was awarded to the
    Palestinian film "Omar," a war-torn love story, directed by Hany
    Abu-Assad.

    Vinterberg was one of a five-strong jury that included French actress
    Ludivine Sagnier and Chinese starlet Zhang Ziyi, who came to the stage
    wearing a sparkling white couture gown.

    Armenian News - Tert.am

Working...
X