:00:00. > :00:00.But, with the pilot still being investigated
:00:00. > :00:00.for manslaughter, and the inquests to come, it may be months before
:00:07. > :00:09.they know if anyone will be held to account.
:00:10. > :00:12.Now on BBC News, it is time for Our World.
:00:13. > :00:14.Yalda Hakim visits Cambodia to meet Angelina Jolie.
:00:15. > :00:20.40 years ago, Cambodia experienced a genocide
:00:21. > :00:31.Now, a new film directed by Hollywood superstar
:00:32. > :00:33.Angelina Jolie has won the backing of the
:00:34. > :00:42.The presence of the Cambodian royal family at the movie's premiere,
:00:43. > :00:47.a stamp of approval for a film about the genocide that has never
:00:48. > :00:49.happened before, a significant acknowledgement that there needs
:00:50. > :01:11.to be more public discussion about the events of that time.
:01:12. > :01:15.I hope this doesn't bring up hatred, I hope it doesn't bring up blame,
:01:16. > :01:19.I hope it just brings up discussion and I hope that the people of this
:01:20. > :01:39.country are proud when they see it because they see what they survived.
:01:40. > :01:42.On the banks of the Mekong River bursts of colour,
:01:43. > :01:52.This is Phnom Penh today, full of life, bustling,
:01:53. > :02:03.Seeing all this it is hard to imagine that just four decades
:02:04. > :02:16.In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement,
:02:17. > :02:18.took power, forcing millions from the cities
:02:19. > :02:32.This was their year zero, an attempt to create
:02:33. > :02:37.It was easy to find yourself an enemy of Angkor,
:02:38. > :02:51.Practising religion, showing emotions or even wearing
:02:52. > :02:55.In four years over two million people were killed,
:02:56. > :03:04.In 1979, weakened by infighting, the Khmer Rouge were driven
:03:05. > :03:12.from power by invading troops from neighbouring Vietnam.
:03:13. > :03:20.40 years later, a new film about those times,
:03:21. > :03:30.First They Killed My Father is breaking new ground.
:03:31. > :03:33.There have been films made about the genocide before,
:03:34. > :03:37.It is funded by one of the world's biggest content distributors,
:03:38. > :03:47.But it's filmed entirely in Cambodia with Cambodian actors
:03:48. > :03:58.Because it's directed by Hollywood superstar Angelina Jolie.
:03:59. > :04:02.She has had a deep connection with this country for almost 20
:04:03. > :04:05.years since she first made a film here.
:04:06. > :04:08.It is where she adopted her first child, a Cambodian boy.
:04:09. > :04:16.She has even been given Cambodian citizenship.
:04:17. > :04:24.I thought what story do I feel is really important to tell?
:04:25. > :04:27.I felt that this war that happened 40 years ago and what happened
:04:28. > :04:30.to these people was not properly understood and not just
:04:31. > :04:33.for the world, but for the people of the country.
:04:34. > :04:37.I felt that I wanted them to be able to reflect on it in a way
:04:38. > :04:52.This film is graphic, detailed and personal.
:04:53. > :04:56.It is based on the true story of Loung Ung, who was five years
:04:57. > :04:58.old when the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge began.
:04:59. > :05:01.She managed to survive but her mother, father and two
:05:02. > :05:13.And in a country where almost every family suffered under the regime,
:05:14. > :05:15.the film-makers hope this will resonate and encourage people
:05:16. > :05:25.to speak more freely about their deep, personal pain.
:05:26. > :05:28.Right in the centre of the capital, Tuol Sleng, also known as S21,
:05:29. > :05:33.was a high school that became a prison.
:05:34. > :05:35.Inmates were stripped, suffocated, interrogated,
:05:36. > :05:50.Foreign tourists from all over the world come here to learn.
:05:51. > :05:56.But you don't see many Cambodians here.
:05:57. > :05:59.Some of the local people I've spoken to say they don't want to be
:06:00. > :06:04.There are thousands of pictures taken of each prisoner
:06:05. > :06:13.Each of them would have had families, a life and this
:06:14. > :06:21.is the only way we can now remember them.
:06:22. > :06:28.Over 12,000 people are estimated to have come through these doors.
:06:29. > :06:35.I think of all the photographs, it is the ones where
:06:36. > :06:39.they are smiling which make me feel most sick because we now know
:06:40. > :06:49.They would have had some idea of what would happen to them.
:06:50. > :06:52.It just doesn't fit what's actually going on in this place,
:06:53. > :07:12.At 86 he is one of the last still alive.
:07:13. > :07:15.He comes back here every day to share his story with one person
:07:16. > :07:23.Like so many others, he was accused of being a spy
:07:24. > :07:28.As a mechanic he was useful to the Khmer Rouge and they kept him
:07:29. > :07:38.He takes me to see his cell where he was known as number 22.
:07:39. > :08:56.Now he has made it his duty to repeat his story over and over
:08:57. > :09:30.as a tribute to the thousands who didn't.
:09:31. > :09:36.He wants to make sure every single person who walks through the doors
:09:37. > :09:45.of the museum understand what happened here.
:09:46. > :09:48.Rithy Panh was just 11 years old when the Khmer Rouge
:09:49. > :09:56.He is now arguably the country's most influential artist and produced
:09:57. > :10:07.The Oscar nominated film-maker says this is a country that has trouble
:10:08. > :11:01.And there are so many ghosts in this country.
:11:02. > :11:06.On the outskirts of the capital the anonymous dead.
:11:07. > :11:10.They call them the killing fields and these mass graves exist
:11:11. > :11:19.One favourite mantra of the regime was "to keep you is no benefit,
:11:20. > :11:28.Some victims were shot dead, others buried alive,
:11:29. > :11:41.This is yet another mass grave where more than a hundred victims
:11:42. > :11:45.were killed, mostly women and children.
:11:46. > :11:49.And this over here it is the most unimaginable, but they had a killing
:11:50. > :11:54.tree and now there are just these colourful beads,
:11:55. > :12:06.So what has been done to bring those responsible to justice?
:12:07. > :12:11.A UN-backed court was set up in Cambodia.
:12:12. > :12:14.Hundreds of millions have been spent so far,
:12:15. > :12:19.though only four officials have gone to trial, a deliberate decision
:12:20. > :12:25.to only try those at the very top of the Khmer Rouge.
:12:26. > :12:28.Further funding for the tribunals is now in jeopardy and it is unlikely
:12:29. > :12:37.But some of those who suffered say a tribunal is not the only
:12:38. > :13:16.They say what is needed is to keep speaking up.
:13:17. > :13:21.This is the biggest film premiere this country has ever seen
:13:22. > :13:24.and the presence of a superstar like Angelina Jolie has brought
:13:25. > :13:31.The film's screening at one of Cambodia's world-famous ancient
:13:32. > :13:34.temples is a deliberate display of the approval it has
:13:35. > :13:41.at the highest level of Cambodian society.
:13:42. > :13:47.The presence of the King and Queen of Cambodia is highly symbolic.
:13:48. > :13:50.This kind of domestic support and backing of a film
:13:51. > :13:55.about the genocide has never happened before here in Cambodia.
:13:56. > :14:00.For Angelina Jolie this is a passion project.
:14:01. > :14:07.This film is in a way my way of saying thank you to Cambodia.
:14:08. > :14:12.Because, you see, Cambodia changed my life.
:14:13. > :14:15.The film is being screened in Cambodia seven months before
:14:16. > :14:23.Schoolchildren and victims sit side-by-side, a generation who know
:14:24. > :14:27.the story all too well, and a new generation willing
:14:28. > :14:36.So I hope this doesn't bring up hatred, I hope it doesn't bring up
:14:37. > :14:40.blame, I hope it just brings up discussion and I hope
:14:41. > :14:46.that the people of this country are proud when they see it
:14:47. > :14:51.because they see what they have survived and I think it sheds light
:14:52. > :14:57.on what it is to be Cambodian, a lot of the beauty of love
:14:58. > :15:05.You think this nation is ready for that?
:15:06. > :15:09.I hope so. Yes, I do.
:15:10. > :15:12.The hope is this film will make it easier for the country to talk
:15:13. > :15:22.Some have already found the courage to do so.
:15:23. > :15:31.His weathered face shows the hard life he has lived.
:15:32. > :15:37.The 65-year-old now sells bananas for a living.
:15:38. > :15:40.When it comes time for talking about his past, though,
:15:41. > :15:47.He wants to meet us in a remote pagoda.
:15:48. > :15:50.Before he was a farmer he was a torturer at the infamous
:15:51. > :16:12.Tuol Sleng prison that I visited in Phnom Penh.
:16:13. > :17:04.So there was screaming, begging, asking you to stop?
:17:05. > :17:18.During that time he did not consider he was guilty.
:17:19. > :17:52.It has been 40 years since the events he describes
:17:53. > :17:56.and he calls himself a victim as well.
:17:57. > :18:23.But does he think he should have been punished?
:18:24. > :18:26.Pratt Korn tells me the past haunts him, he feels
:18:27. > :18:31.He says he often talks to his children about his past,
:18:32. > :18:35.but it is difficult for them to believe that their 64-year-old
:18:36. > :18:37.father, now grandfather, could have committed
:18:38. > :18:48.After the film premiere, Angelina Jolie has come to hear
:18:49. > :18:57.She listens as one by one they speak.
:18:58. > :19:19.The old share their stories, a lifetime of emotion is released.
:19:20. > :19:22.I realise how difficult it is for them to open up.
:19:23. > :19:27.The pain is still so present, like it happened yesterday.
:19:28. > :19:30.How do you think this film will help the younger generation
:19:31. > :19:50.when you hear her speaking you see her tears and pain?
:19:51. > :19:53.What do you feel your responsibility is?
:19:54. > :19:59.Well, to that question my responsibility would be to pass it
:20:00. > :20:03.on to a way longer generation and to show them what the devastation was,
:20:04. > :20:08.the struggle they have been through, the pain, in order for that to avoid
:20:09. > :20:15.Do you think it is hard for them to open up?
:20:16. > :20:18.As a society Cambodians don't like to talk about their feelings
:20:19. > :20:24.Do you think that it is difficult for them to talk to the younger
:20:25. > :20:26.people about what has happened to them?
:20:27. > :20:29.In my opinion I don't think they feel they don't want to talk.
:20:30. > :20:33.They really want to talk, they really want to reveal
:20:34. > :20:37.what they have been through, but the problem is how the listener
:20:38. > :20:47.For many Cambodians this is a first, to finally be speaking to strangers
:20:48. > :20:58.about their private, painful memories.
:20:59. > :21:10.Each move a symbol of the past, present and future.
:21:11. > :21:14.It goes back thousands of years to Angkorian era,
:21:15. > :21:24.a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
:21:25. > :21:29.In the past it was only ever taught at the Royal Courts.
:21:30. > :21:32.But the dance almost vanished under the Khmer Rouge and only
:21:33. > :21:38.a few of those who knew the art survived.
:21:39. > :21:41.Now it is slowly making a comeback with a new generation keen
:21:42. > :21:51.Another thing almost lost is being restored,
:21:52. > :22:30.all the more precious for having been saved.
:22:31. > :22:33.The many Cambodians I have met and spoken to say they are slowly
:22:34. > :22:37.restoring pride in their culture and finding strength
:22:38. > :22:44.This nation's people are clearly still haunted by the events of 40
:22:45. > :22:51.years ago and are still looking for a way to heal.
:22:52. > :22:54.I think they will always search for answers, and need to remember.
:22:55. > :22:58.But they don't want the brutality of the past and the need to remember
:22:59. > :23:41.My advice for the weekend is to be prepared for everything. There will
:23:42. > :23:42.be some rain and when it arrives it will