មុនដំបូងខ្មែរក្រហមសម្លាប់ប៉ារបស់ខ្ញុំ
Country of Origin: United States, Cambodia
Primary Audio Language: Khmer
Director: Angelina Jolie
Film Length: 2h 16m
Synopsis: Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung recounts the horrors she suffered as a child under the rule of the deadly Khmer Rouge.
Star Rating: ★★★★★
Review: Adapted from a memoir by the same name by Cambodian-born American human-rights activist, Loung Ung, this is a biographical historical thriller film that depicts the heartbreaking true story of Ung’s experience as a child soldier when she was 5-year old girl in the Khmer Rouge regime, it as an outstandingly meaningful movie that everyone should watch.
I added this movie to my “My List” on Netflix almost a year ago and never got around to watch it, never in “the mood” to watch a subtitled movie while browsing. Most of the time I, like I assume a lot of people, am just looking for something to put on in the background to passively listen to, which, of course, subtitles make almost impossible, but I’m so happy I finally did. It’s an important movie that better shows the psychological impact of war on people, and especially the youth of Cambodia during the Vietnam war.
[Minor Spoilers] Loung, portrayed by the highly talented Sareum Srey Moch in the film, is one of seven children of an officer of the Khmer National Armed Forces. When the United States removes their forces from Cambodia, abandoning the Khmer National Armed Forces, the Khmer Rouge uprising begins with the intent to wipe out the previous regime, which the United States had supported before evacuating its embassies in the country. When the Khmer Rouge reach their city, the family is forced onto the streets and into the countryside. Their father pretends to be a manual laborer in order to avoid being taken prisoner, and the family is able to escape to his brother’s house together for some time, but the constant threat of his previous position becomes too much, and the family is soon forced to move out on foot again in attempt to escape.
It becomes only a matter of time before they’re captured and sent to a re-education camp, and soon after that, the father is taken into the field and executed. One of Loung’s sister dies, and with the rest of them starving and certain to be found out, their mother encourages her children to escape in the middle of the night. They are soon split up, and Ung eventually finds herself forced to train as a child soldier.
On pass to visit her sister from the work camp they were together at shortly, she instead returns to where she left her mother and baby sister, only to find it empty. She’s told Soldiers came and took them away, but she can only silently grieve in a way that’s impossible to truly understand, but is heart wrenching just the same. When the training camp is destroyed, Loung manages to escape and is reunited with two of her siblings. The three of them find themselves at a Red Cross refugee camp and eventually meet with their older brothers who also survived. The movie ends with the surviving children visiting Cambodia as adults in present time.
The movie is as devastating as it is beautiful, the honest depiction of countless war crimes through the eyes of a child coupled with stunning visuals and genuine emotional performances by all of the actor’s involved is certainly a notable experience that will leave even the most hardened viewer shaken. First They Killed My Father could not be more highly recommended by me.
Available On: Netflix
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