Rob Lemkin's documentary Enemies of the People, directed and produced with Thet Sambas was screened at University College London (UCL) on Wednesday this week. The award-winning documentary attempts to explore the tragic history of the Killing Fields through the personal journey of Thet Sambas, a Cambodian journalist, whose family had been killed during the massacres, and who confronts his painful past by meeting some of the perpetrators of the former Khmer Rouge including one of the Khmer Rouge top leaders: Nuon Chea.
The film was made possible through the personal quest of Thet Sambas, who'd spent years looking for perpetrators of the former regime, attempting to get them to open up and to admit to their attrocities. It revealed the highly complex nature of a documentary of this sort. The film's success mainly relied on access to the perpetrators, something not easily achieved by an outside filmmaker and made possible by Thet Sambas. It was thanks to the persistence of Thet Sambas over the years and his ability to build relations with some of the former perpetrators that led to them opening up and revealing their dark pasts.
After years of his own research into the history that had affected him personally, Thet Sambas met with Rob Lemkin to work on a project which ultimately led to this film. Thus credit needs to be given to Thet Sambas who not only helped make this recount possible, but who also played a key role at establishing a connection with the story through his personal quest. At the same time credit needs to be given to Rob Lemkin for directing Thet Sambas' journey with tremendous sensitivity and objectivity towards all contributors.
While I found the film to be informative and engaging on a rational level, there was one element missing for me that made it more difficult to connect with it on an emotional level. I didn't find the film to be as moving as one has come to expect from this genre of human rights films. Perhaps this is the point that needs to be examined. In a world of Hollywood-esque stylised movies that have portrayed the stories of crimes against humanity in a near epic way, one has come to be accustomed to the idea of expecting a strong emotional response to films of this nature. In an almost perverse way one expects an emotional wow effect after watching a documentary with this subject matter. Powerful visuals accompanied by emotional music in key dramatic scenes have usually underlined the tragic message in films of this type. Instead Enemies of the People has a more quiet and less dramatic presence, making the film all the more realistic and poignant.
The film was made possible through the personal quest of Thet Sambas, who'd spent years looking for perpetrators of the former regime, attempting to get them to open up and to admit to their attrocities. It revealed the highly complex nature of a documentary of this sort. The film's success mainly relied on access to the perpetrators, something not easily achieved by an outside filmmaker and made possible by Thet Sambas. It was thanks to the persistence of Thet Sambas over the years and his ability to build relations with some of the former perpetrators that led to them opening up and revealing their dark pasts.
After years of his own research into the history that had affected him personally, Thet Sambas met with Rob Lemkin to work on a project which ultimately led to this film. Thus credit needs to be given to Thet Sambas who not only helped make this recount possible, but who also played a key role at establishing a connection with the story through his personal quest. At the same time credit needs to be given to Rob Lemkin for directing Thet Sambas' journey with tremendous sensitivity and objectivity towards all contributors.
While I found the film to be informative and engaging on a rational level, there was one element missing for me that made it more difficult to connect with it on an emotional level. I didn't find the film to be as moving as one has come to expect from this genre of human rights films. Perhaps this is the point that needs to be examined. In a world of Hollywood-esque stylised movies that have portrayed the stories of crimes against humanity in a near epic way, one has come to be accustomed to the idea of expecting a strong emotional response to films of this nature. In an almost perverse way one expects an emotional wow effect after watching a documentary with this subject matter. Powerful visuals accompanied by emotional music in key dramatic scenes have usually underlined the tragic message in films of this type. Instead Enemies of the People has a more quiet and less dramatic presence, making the film all the more realistic and poignant.
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