S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003)

A unique documentary on the notorious S-21 prison, today the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with testimony by the only surviving prisoners and former Khmer Rouge guards.

Director:

Rithy Panh

Writer:

Rithy Panh

Stars:

Khieu 'Poev' Ches, Yeay Cheu, Nhem En

13 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Khieu 'Poev' Ches	...	Himself - Guard
Yeay Cheu	...	Herself - Him Houy's Mother
Nhem En	...	Himself - Photographer (as Nhiem Ein)
Houy Him	...	Himself - Security deputy
Ta Him	...	Himself - Him Houy's Father
Nhieb Ho	...	Himself - Guard
Prakk Kahn	...	Himself - the Torturer
Peng Kry	...	Himself - Driver
Som Meth	...	Himself - Guard
Chum Mey	...	Himself - Survivor
Vann Nath	...	Himself - Survivor
Top Pheap	...	Himself - Interrogator & Typist
Tcheam Seur	...	Himself - Guard
Sours Thi	...	Himself - Head of Registers
Mak Thim	...	Himself - S21 Doctor

Storyline

Between 1975 and 1979, the communist inspired Khmer Rouge waged a campaign of terror and mass murder on Cambodia's population. Up to 1.7 mill. Cambodians lost their lives to famine, hard labor and murder as the urban population was forced into the countryside to fulfill the Khmer Rouge's dream of an agrarian utopia. In the former Security Prison 21 (code-named "S21"), which was once a high school and is today the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, director Rithy Panh brings two of the few survivors back to discuss what happened there between 1975 and 1979. Painter Vann Nath survived by chance and didn't suffer the same fate as 17,000 other men, women and children who were taken there, tortured and their so-called 'crimes' meticulously documented to justify their execution. The ex-Khmer Rouge guards respond to Nath's questions with excuses, chilling stoicism or apparent remorse as they recount the atrocities they committed at ages as young as 12 years old. To escape torture, the prisoners ...

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Plot Keywords:

khmer rouge | genocide | torture | cambodia | war crime | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History | War

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Cambodia France

Language:

Khmer Vietnamese

Release Date:

11 February 2004 (France)

Also Known As:

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

Filming Locations:

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,302, 23 May 2004, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$21,678, 22 August 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arte France Cinéma, Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Organized terror

In this emotional and gripping movie Rithy Panh confronts former killers and the few survivors (among the thousands of inmates) of the slaughtering in the horrible S-21 prison in Phnom Penh during the Red Khmer regime in Kampuchea. The guards show the place were people were clubbed to death, not shot. The sound of gun shots would have created panic among the group of prisoners waiting to be killed. The inmates confess blatantly that under untenable torture they told their interrogators everything those wanted to hear and denounced as traitors even the most innocent of their compatriots. The movie creates a nearly unbearable emotional climate by showing the extreme excesses of a Marxist ideology going mad, killing even intentionally children and babies. A one party State was installed where the top forced a terror regime on the entire population.

This movie is a must see for all those interested in the history and the nature of mankind.