S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
by Rithy Panh
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DVD details
Actor: Houy Him, Khieu 'Poev' Ches, Mak Thim, Ta Him, Yeay CheuDirector: Rithy Panh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
DVD Reviews of S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
DVD Review: A must-see for Cambodia watchers
Summary: 5 Stars
Having visited Tuol Sleng museum in Phnom Penh several times, I was highly fascinated by this brilliant DVD. It shows the Khmer Rouge henchmen from that dark period, who seemingly for the first time admit to their misdeeds. All of them however feel not guilty of any crime, since they were 'only following orders'. What's new. What I found a bit dissapointing is that there is almost no mention of the few western prisoners who perished in Tuol Sleng, by doing so I think the director could have invoked a lot of extra world-wide attention on his film. But other than that, this film is a must-see for anyone who's interested in the Pol Pot-era. DVD Review: Organized terror
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
DVD Review: Like being given a guided tour of Auschwitz by the SS
Summary: 5 Stars
Compared to the European Holocaust, in which six million Jews as well as multitudes of other human beings were slaughtered in the concentration camps, the more recent events in Cambodia, where somewhere around 2 million people (perhaps 20% of the entire country?) died in only four years of Khmer Rouge rule, are relatively little known or discussed outside Cambodia itself. Of the 17,000 imprisoned and tortured in Tuol Sleng, the focus of this chilling documentary, only SEVEN survived. Perhaps only three are still alive today, forty years later.
Watching this documentary, in which two of the survivors engage in discussions about the camp with their former guards and captors and in which those guards re-enact their daily routine, is horrifying. Hannah Arendt wrote about the banality of evil; these individuals personify it. The opening scenes are of one of the guards in his ordinary life today, planting rice, holding his baby, talking with his parents. Over a series of meetings with Vann Nath, the Khmer artist who was one of that tiny handful of survivors, however, the viewer becomes aware of what lies in the past of this guard and others -- some of whom were only 13 or 14 years old -- and how they still try to force it to the back of their minds.
There are scenes in this film -- which is free of any overall narration that might allow the viewer to distance himself or herself from the material in any way -- that will remain with me for a long time, such as one guard showing, in excruciating detail, how he 'cared' for the prisoners in the former schoolroom entrusted to him at Tuol Sleng, fetching rice soup and water, and threatening to beat them for sitting up or moving too much. In another scene, one former guard sits at the interrogator's desk, reading from a transcript of an interrogation, while four others carry in what first looks like the body of a prisoner, but turns out to be a chair in which the prisoner would sit and be tortured into a confession. Without the confession to give the regime a 'legal' pretext for their decision to order the 'destruction' of the individual, the execution often didn't proceed. And some of those confessions, as Vann Nath tries to get the guards to realize, were improbable in the extreme. One points out to him that it seemed rational at the time. "I gave her a choice (that she was spying for) the KGB, the CIA or the Vietnamese enemy," one former guard says. The 19-year-old girl, too illiterate to write her own confessions, chooses the CIA, and eventually confuses to defecating in hospital operating rooms on CIA orders.
There are few heroes of this documentary. Even the other survivor, as Vann Nath gently points out to him, named some 64 other people in his own 'confession', each of which probably was in turn arrested and murdered. Nath himself has obviously wrestled extensively with the moral and spiritual questions that such horrific events raise in the mind of any thinking individual, rather than shying away from them as his subjects do. They still define themselves as victims. In that case, what about the thousands of Tuol Sleng inmates who are murdered -- what are they? Nath enquires. "Secondary victims," one guard responds. And yet, 70% of the guards survived. Nath, on the contrary, emerges as a Khmer version of Primo Levi and Simon Wiesenthal, making his life's work not only remembrance and justice, but also simply trying to get today's Cambodian regime to agree that the Khmer Rouge did something wrong.
Even after visiting Tuol Sleng in 2002 (where my guide was a woman of my own age with her legs scarred after having been whipped with barbed wire by the Khmer Rouge) this documentary told me much that I didn't know and gave me immense insight -- however disquieting -- into the minds of the perpetrators. The director -- a French citizen who escaped the genocide -- is to be commended for his ability to coax them into participating in the film: for all that German and Austrian governments and individuals have rejected Hitler and his regime more formally than today's Cambodian regime, I can't imagine an SS guard re-enacting what it was like to shove people into the gas chambers, while these former Khmer Rouge show exactly how they murdered their victims at the 'killing fields'.
Viewing this as Duch, the former head of Tuol Sleng, is being tried for war crimes in Cambodia -- in what is likely to be the only trial of its kind, given that some perpetrators like Pol Pot and torturer Ta Mok are now dead and others have been reabsorbed into the political system -- was particularly intriguing and thought provoking. For anyone interested in learning more about Tuol Sleng, I'd recommend reading Nic Dunlop's fascinating tale of how he discovered Duch, The Lost Executioner: A Story of the Khmer Rouge, or The Gate, a story of one man's encounters with and kidnapping by the Khmer Rouge before they rose to power.
DVD Review: Compelling!!!! A must see
Summary: 5 Stars
It is hard not to give this documentary 5 stars. What Vann Nath went through during those turbulent years that he spent in Tuol Sleng is simply unimaginable. To Acually get former Khmer Rouge guards together to re-enact their roles as prison guards at S21 is a feat in itself considering the whole "loss of face" that dominates S.E. Asian culture. It is totally understandable why Vann Nath would have a hard time forgiving his former captors but it is equally understandable as to why these former guards would shy away from taking responsibility and pass the blame to their superiors since to defy the Khmer Rouge "henchmen" could have cost them their own lives and again "saving face" which includes not OUTWARDLY admitting fault or taking responsibility even when you share in that responsibility is an unfortunate part of S.E. asian culture that is very diffcult for westerners to comprehend.
It would have been nice if this documentary provided some background information for people who are unfamiliar with the atrocities that took place in Cambodia from 1975-79, but even if one is not familiar with Cambodias' genocidal past, this documentary may help motivate people to learn more about this period in history. As far as providing footage from this period? What footage? There is none or at least very little since Pol Pot did not allow himself to be filmed and sealed off Cambodia to the rest of the world during the Khmer Rouge years, so very little (if any) footage of signifigance exists and this is the whole purpose for the re- enactment.
Vann Nath should serve as an inspiration for human kind. A man who endored so much tragedy and still was able to walk away not only with his life but with his dignity intact.
DVD Review: A Noble Venture.
Summary: 3 Stars
There are numerous outstanding elements within this documentary concerning the Khmer Rouge's murder center in Phnom Penh. My problem with the film though was that there was not a broad narrative spoken or alluded to with which to guide and inform the viewer. I would have liked to have seen a good 45 minutes of background analysis here before we joined former (and viciously tortured) prisoners Nath and Chum Mey on their tour of Tuol Sleng Prison. Their encounter with their former guards was both educational, memorable, and disturbing. Nath's observations struck a chord with me. Indeed, this was particularly true when he pointed out that he could not even bring himself to forgive those who persecuted him because none of them appeared remotely remorseful or asked for his forgiveness. He is correct regarding the great majority who eerily and vigorously reenacted their daily tasks at the prison for the camera. These scenes are especially chilling. As with everything in life though there are areas of gray. Former guard Houy is remorseful and admits that the experience ruined him forever. He feels a profound sense of guilt over what he has done but is incapable of communicating it to Nath or Mey. Instead, we hear his anger expressed at the Khmer Rouge and that his past continues to haunt him. S21 was a noble venture, but it moved far too slow and lacked a proper historical introduction in my opinion.
Description of S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
{Winner! International Human Rights Award, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2004}{Winner! Fran?ois Chalais Award, Cannes Film Festival 2003}
{Winner! Gold Plaque, Best Documentary, Chicago International Film Festival 2003}
{Winner! Best Documentary, European Film Awards 2003}
In 1975-79, almost two million Cambodians lost their lives to murder and famine when the Khmer Rouge forced the urban population into the countryside to fulfill their ideal of an agrarian utopia. The notorious detention center code-named 'S21' was the schoolhouse-turned prison where 17,000 men, women and children were tortured, interrogated and executed, their "crimes" meticulously documented to justify their execution.
In this award-winning documentary and astonishing historical document, Rithy Panh and his team undertook a three year investigation involving not only the survivors, but also their former torturers. They persuaded both groups to return to the actual site of what was formerly S21, now converted into a Genocide Museum, to face their past. One survivor, Vann Nath confronts his captors, some of whom were as young as 12 years old when they committed their atrocities.
Human Rights Watch, widely regarded as one of the most influential and important human rights organizations in the world, and First Run Features, which for 25 years has distributed films that confront human rights issues, formed a collaboration to bring awareness to films that shed light on human rights abuses throughout the world. S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is the first title in the HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SELECTS DVD series.
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