A trailer has landed for Angelina Jolie’s latest directorial effort, “First They Killed My Father.” The spot is scarce on plot details — and includes no dialogue — but it manages to leave a haunting impression all the same.
Based on Cambodian human rights activist Loung Ung’s 2000 book, the film offers “an unflinching portrayal of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror and genocide from the view of a five-year-old survivor [Loung] cut off from her family in 1975,” its official summary details.
Newcomer Sareum Srey Mochcut plays Loung. Though she doesn’t make so much as a noise in the nearly-two-minute-long trailer, her expressive face communicates plenty — including fear, confusion, and resilience. We see how quickly and dramatically her life changes as she and her family try to survive genocide. And it’s clear that not everyone lives. The clip includes a disturbing snippet of Loung’s father being killed.
Jolie penned the script with Ung and produced alongside Cambodian-born documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh.
“Many Cambodians cried when they watched the film,” Panh told Deadline. She explained, “Cinematic fiction incorporates individual stories, and finds a particular resonance with each individual’s story. Looking through the eyes of others enables us to confront our own history, to recognize ourselves in that history, to regain our dignity, and to reconcile ourselves with irreparable loss.”
“First They Killed My Father” marks Jolie’s fifth time behind the camera as a director. She’s also helmed “By the Sea,” “Unbroken,” “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” and doc “A Place in Time.”
Shot in the Khmer language by Jolie, “First They Killed My Father” debuts on Netflix September 15. The film will also screen at TIFF.
