Film

S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine

S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine is a 2003 documentary by Rithy Panh that brings survivors and former staff back to the S-21 prison in Phnom Penh.[1][2] Its French title is S21, la machine de mort khmère rouge.[3]

Background

Under Democratic Kampuchea (1975 to 1979), towns were emptied, money was abolished, and people were imprisoned and executed for invented crimes against the state.[4] Screen puts the death toll of those four years at almost two million people; IDFA gives about two million.[4][2] S-21 was the code name of Tuol Sleng prison, the regime's main security bureau in central Phnom Penh. It was set up in a compound of secondary schools and used to interrogate, torture and execute political prisoners.[3][4] Most of the prisoners were ordinary Cambodians forced to confess to imagined treason and conspiracy.[3] Some 17,000 were tortured and killed there.[3][4] The Museum of Modern Art counts 12 adults who were spared, Screen names Vann Nath as one of only three men who survived, and IDFA refers to seven survivors.[3][4][2] The prison is now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.[1]

Synopsis

Rithy Panh, himself a survivor of the Khmer Rouge, brought two former prisoners, the painter Vann Nath and Chum Mey, back to the prison.[1] At S-21 Chum Mey had repaired sewing machines, and Vann Nath had been made to paint portraits: of prisoners in Wikipedia's account, of Pol Pot in the Museum of Modern Art's.[3][1] There they meet their former captors: guards, interrogators, a doctor and a photographer. Many of them were barely teenagers during the Khmer Rouge years, and some were as young as 12.[1][3]

The former guards walk through the empty rooms and reenact how they treated the prisoners and the daily routine of the prison.[1][2] They read aloud the instructions they once followed and look over the prison's records, including interrogation rosters, confessions and photographs, to refresh their memories.[1][5] The film includes Vann Nath's paintings of the prisoners.[5] He confronts the men about what they did, and they answer that they were victims too, little more than children at the time, and hold themselves blameless.[1] The film also shows a former executioner, twenty years later, planting rice and sitting with his family.[5]

Production and credits

Rithy Panh wrote and directed the film, and he and Prum Mesa were the cinematographers.[1][2] Cati Couteau produced it for the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), with Arte France as co-producer.[2][4] Wikipedia credits Couteau, Dana Hastier, Aline Sasson and Liane Willemont as producers; Screen and Rotten Tomatoes list Sasson and Willemont as executive producers.[1][4][6] Isabelle Roudy and Marie-Christine Rougerie edited the film, and Marc Marder composed the music.[1] The film is in Khmer and Vietnamese.[1][3]

Release and reception

The film premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix François Chalais, and it opened in France on May 17, 2003.[1][7] It had its North American premiere at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at the New York and Vancouver festivals.[1] The Institut national de l'audiovisuel and First Run Features distributed it, and Icarus Films also handled distribution.[1][5] The running time is 101 minutes; The American Historical Review lists the Icarus Films release as a 2002 film of 105 minutes.[2][5]

It won best documentary at the Chicago International Film Festival, the 2003 European Film Awards and the Valladolid International Film Festival.[1][7][8] It also received a humanitarian award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Prize at Dok Leipzig and a special jury prize at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.[1] At the 2003 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Wikipedia records it as runner-up and the Taiwan International Documentary Festival lists a Grand Jury Prize.[1][7]

In The American Historical Review, Leona Toker wrote that the film is devoted to two issues: the mechanics of the killing and the way the past is being processed today.[5] The Museum of Modern Art names it as an inspiration for Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing and Barbet Schroeder's The Venerable W.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 Wikipedia, S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 IDFA Archive, S21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 The Museum of Modern Art, S21, la machine de mort khmère rouge (S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine). 2003. Directed by Rithy Panh (October 15, 2022)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Screen, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (June 11, 2003)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 The American Historical Review, S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, reviewed by Leona Toker (December 1, 2005)
  6. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Taiwan International Documentary Festival, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (September 14, 2017)
  8. ↑ IMDb, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003)
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This page was last edited on 27 September 2026, at 06:00.