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S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

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S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine DVD
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S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine on DVD


The brutality of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge regime is documented in Rithy Panh's documentary, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine. S21 was a notorious detention center, an abandoned suburban schoolhouse used by the Angkor (the Communist Party organization) for the imprisonment and torture of thousands of innocent citizens. Prisoners were tortured until they confessed to false crimes, and were also ordered to incriminate others. Of the approximately 17,000 prisoners who were interred there, about seven survived. Panh interviews two of the survivors, Vann Nath and Chum Mey. While Mey can barely bring himself to speak of the horrors he endured, including the loss of his family, Nath agrees to return to the prison, which is now the Tuol Sleng S21 Genocide Museum, and discuss his ordeal. Panh also brings back several of the Khmer Rouge personnel, who committed atrocious acts on behalf of the regime, many while they were still teenagers. The guards and interrogators give a horrific tour, reenacting their treatment of the prisoners, and going through the regimes detailed records, including photographs, to refresh their memories of the horror they took part in. Panh allows Nath to confront them about their actions, but most of them claim that they themselves were also victims, indoctrinated in the regime's poisonous ideology, and too afraid for their own safety to show any compassion for their victims. Panh himself was imprisoned at a Khmer Rouge labor camp as a teenager, before escaping to Thailand in 1979. S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine won the Prix Francois Chalais at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, and was also selected for the 2003 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
  • Sound By: Dolby Digital Stereo
  • Released By: First Run Features
director interview
Biography & filmography
Cambodia: A Chronology
HRW film notes
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  • S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine DVD
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine DVD

Editorial Reviews

Rithy Panh's S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a grueling look at the murderous abuses that took place in a notorious Cambodian detention center in the mid- to late '70s. Panh's film is anything but sensationalistic, as he interviews victims and torturers who rarely get overtly emotional about what they experienced. The film is chilling in its depiction of the seemingly unrepentant jailers, who were essentially children while they held the power of human life in their hands. S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine subtly explores the seduction of power and brutality. Aside from a fascinating early scene in which Ta Him and Yeay Cheu, the parents of Kim Houy, one of the oppressors, try to persuade him to tell the truth about what he's done, for the sake of his karma, and another heartbreaking scene in which a former prisoner, Chum Mey, breaks down while trying to speak of his ordeal, the film is surprisingly staid in its tone. In fact, as the former guards and interrogators calmly discuss what they did, read from the regime's records, and pantomime the barbarous actions of their younger selves, the film gets a bit monotonous. They could be reading from a grocery list, which, in retrospect, makes Panh's film all the more powerful an indictment of those who "just follow orders." While these men are forthcoming with details about the atrocities they took part in, they offer little insight into what might have made them capable of such actions. A horrifying look at recent history, the film is less an analysis of evil than a heartfelt cry for justice. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi