Jolie unveils Khmer Rouge film – Syria’s White Helmets to travel to US for Oscars

This news has been read 6140 times!

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Feb 19, (AFP): Angelina Jolie unveiled her new film on the horrors of the Khmer Rouge era on Saturday at the ancient Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, a country the star shares a deep affinity with through her adopted son Maddox.

Cambodia’s king and survivors of the communist regime were among hundreds of people invited to the debut screening of “First They Killed My Father”, directed by Jolie and based on the memoirs of Loung Ung.

Loung Ung was five years old when Khmer Rouge troops, led by Pol Pot, swept into Phnom Penh plunging her family into a harrowing ordeal that saw them sent to brutal labour camps before her eventual escape to the United States.

In its quest for an agrarian Marxist utopia, the regime killed up to two million Cambodians between 1975-79 through execution, starvation and overwork.

It is the second movie by Jolie to tackle the subject of genocide — in 2011 she made a film about the Bosnian conflict featuring mostly local actors.

But her latest silver screen offering is more personal.

Jolie adopted her first child Maddox from an orphanage in Cambodia’s western Battambang province in 2002 and she has been given Cambodian citizenship.

The Hollywood star previously said it was Maddox who pushed her to make the film.

At a press conference in Siem Reap, Jolie described Cambodia as a “second home”, adding that she chose Loung Ung’s book because she wanted to tell the story of the Khmer Rouge era “through the eyes of a child”.

It also brought her closer to her son, she said.

“I wanted to focus not just on the war but on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son’s birth parents may have gone through. And I wanted to know him better and I wanted to know this country better”, she said.

Jolie’s six children, three of whom are adopted, accompanied their mother for an audience with King Norodom Sihamoni before the premiere.

Ensure

In a tribute to those who survived the brutal regime, Jolie pushed to ensure the film would be both made by Cambodians and accessible to them.

Almost the entire film is in the Khmer language while the cast members and much of the crew were local hires, including the two child protagonists.

The film is also co-produced by Rithy Panh, Cambodia’s most acclaimed filmmaker.

He lost almost all his immediate family during the Khmer Rouge years but went on to produce searing documentaries that helped break the silence surrounding the genocide.

Loung Ung, who Jolie described as a “family friend”, said that while the film centred on her family’s experience, her story would be familiar to all Cambodians.

“I view it as the story of all of us”, she told reporters.

Despite the prosecution of a few top Khmer Rouge cadres, the genocide continues to be a controversial subject.

Strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was a former regime cadre before he defected and has run the impoverished country for more than thirty years, is opposed to any new prosecutions of regime leaders.

But the Cambodian government has welcomed Jolie’s film so far.

Veteran foreign correspondent Elizabeth Becker, one of a handful of western journalists to visit Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era, described Jolie’s film as “heartrending”.

Jolie said she hoped her film would remind viewers of the need to help children escaping war and persecution today.

“There are little Loungs all around the world today in many different countries, many different war zones where we have no access to them and we don’t know if they’re going to be alright”, she said.

The premiere will be followed by screenings across Cambodia, some seven months before the film is released to a global audience on Netflix.

Jolie’s arrival in Cambodia marks a rare public appearance since her high-profile split last year from Brad Pitt.

 

Rescue workers from Syria’s White Helmets — the subjects of an Oscar-nominated documentary — said on Saturday they have received US visas to attend next week’s prestigious Academy Awards ceremony.

For weeks, the rescuers and the film’s staff had been nervously watching the fallout from US President Donald Trump’s now-suspended travel ban for seven countries, including Syria.

“We got our visas yesterday (Friday), but we’re not yet sure if we’ll be able to travel or not”, Raed Saleh, leader of the rescue group, told AFP by phone on Saturday.

“We don’t want to have problems at the borders or the airport”, he said.

The documentary titled “The White Helmets”, directed by Orlando von Einsiedel, was named a contender in late January in the Oscars short documentary category.

Since it emerged in 2013, the rescue group has attracted over 3,000 volunteers and says it has saved more than 78,000 lives.

It is named for the distinctive white hard hats worn by its volunteers and has gained international renown for its daring rescues, often filmed and circulated on social media.

The Oscars award ceremony will take place on Feb 26 in Hollywood.

“With so many people watching, it would be such an important opportunity to talk about the suffering happening in Syria”, Saleh said.

More than 310,000 people have died since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and over half the country’s citizens have been forced to flee their homes.

“The documentary took a lot of effort to make and we’ve been working on it for a long time. People who are featured in the film have since died. There’s equipment that you see that has been destroyed”, Saleh said.

“This film is history for us. We hope that we win the Oscar, because that would provide moral support to the White Helmets and show them that their sacrifices weren’t for nothing”.

According to the film’s producer Joanna Natasegara, Saleh will be joined by fellow White Helmet Khaled Khatib, who shot much of the footage.

Natasegara told AFP by phone that the last few weeks had been a “roller coaster” ride.

“Initially, we were totally delighted at the nomination and invited them to join us, and two days later the executive order came through”, she said.

Under Trump’s short-lived executive order, travellers from seven mainly-Muslim countries, including Syria, were banned from travelling to the United States for 90 days.

The travel ban has since been suspended in court, but Natasegara said she and the film’s team would “be nervous until (Saleh and Khatib) are on US soil”.

“For us as filmmakers, we wanted to be able to give them that platform”, she said.

“It’s their day. Their message is one of hope and peace. We’re just really excited to share that day with them”.

This news has been read 6140 times!