S21, la machine de mort khmère rouge

Before my recent visit to Cambodia which included a short tour of S21, I did some reading on the prison and the complex events that led to its development and operation during the Democratic Kampuchea (Pol Pot) regime.

This movie did a remarkable job filling in my sense of S21 that was not otherwise possible to experience through reading or even touring the prison. For example, interviews with two of the only seven survivors out of over 14,000 prisoners detained and killed at S21 was remarkable by itself as was the opening sequence of a former guard discussing the morality of his role with parents who no doubt felt the full brunt of the Khmer Rouge's brutality, yet survived.

Seeing details such as the private cells, photography apparatus, the typewriters that clacked away to record prisoners' tortured confessions, and the former guards' convincing reenactment of their job as teenage guards at this grisly place was at the same time deeply disturbing and satisfying in improving my understanding of this total institution. The very instruments of dehumanization - ammunition buckets used for toilets, the bare tile floors prisoners were shackled to between interrogations and torture, the windows open to mosquitoes and vermin allowed to feast on the prisoners - are both stark and subtle in their presentation.

Those who expect anything more than a rudimentary understanding of this infamous killing machine may be disappointed. Seeing this movie was at least as valuable as seeing the prison in person. I especially recommend it for anyone who has visited S21 or expects to visit Cambodia.

For me, there are other films that deal with the full atrocities of the Khmer Rouge I would have watched one of them. Instead I wished to view the first hand accounts of guards and survivors, and this is what the film gave me.

It doesn't make this a good or bad film on this basis alone, I'm simply explaining on the criteria which I'm judging it.

Bringing together 2 of the 3 surviving prisoners, a few guards, and a doctor from the death factory of S21 to show one of several face to face encounters they have shared, we get the chance to have a front row seat to what they experienced. There were several mentions of these gatherings, plural, that it is clear this is not something the filmmaker took upon himself for the sake of the audience.

We hear of the punishments, the torture, and most upsetting to me the fact the they were coerced and beaten, sometimes treated medically so they would survive the torture until they would give a confession. Yet all admit the confessions were for the simple reason the prisoners were executed. This sent shivers down my spine.

The beginning scene to me was like a scene in a modern motion picture: it frames how we will view the rest of the footage. It succeeded very well on this extent.

I marked this film slightly lower than perfect for two reasons. The first is that there was no outside footage, except for a Kampuchea Loyalty song. Since this was the only outside influence I recall, it threw me out of the context when it played. Second a few scenes would have been handled better in a longer, slightly shorter single scene. The two separate daytime examples one guard gave of his behavior to called prisoners would have really benefited from this treatment. It also would have allowed the single nighttime example this guard gave of his treatments to these walking-dead men and women an added punch.

Overall, still an excellent film, as was Shoah which took the same technique. Don't expect a primer on the Khmer Roige, there are plenty of good ones around.

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.

I saw this documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film offered powerful testimony from jailers that perpetrated torture and killings. As well, this film elicits the expected emotions from survivors. It was stunning to listen to members of the Khymer Rouge speak so candidly about their inhumanity and also portray themselves as victims that had been simultaneously coerced and indoctrinated into this movement. Very similar to ideas heard in Nazi Germany with the Holocaust and later at the Nuremberg trials. i.e. I was just following orders, I had no choice, or indoctrination similar to fascist propaganda. As powerful as this documentary was, I believe that the extensive testimonies that filled an entire film, limited the effectiveness of the genre. By filling the film with nothing but testimonies, the documentary became repetitive and detracted from the impact it could have had. Jailers acting out the daily routine of checking cells and the lengthy reading of forced admissions of guilt occasionally dulled the impact of other powerful testimony(Sometimes less is more). The director Rithy Panh searched for answers from the jailers, but the standard responses: "i was following orders" etc. would not suffice. He was looking for larger answers on the nature of humanity and what causes people to do such atrocities. The responses from the Khymer Rouge were unacceptable for Panh and he never got the answers that he seemed to need to start the healing process. I believe that more background into the history of Cambodia would have answered some of those questions. No one will ever adequately answer questions on the nature of humanity, but an investigation into the movement would have given many viewers insight into this horrific historical event. At the same time it would have made the testimony more powerful. The barrage of testimony almost made the atrocities seem common. The balancing of information and background with testimony, would have made this all the more powerful. Many people have a limited knowledge of events in Cambodia when compared to Nazi Germany or the Stalinist Purges and yet it is equally disturbing in both scope and sheer evil. I was hoping to be educated and informed whilst being numbed by the inhumanity. For the most part that did not happen. Nevertheless, the documentary is still well done. Much of the testimony is shocking, particularly the mass burials. A film that is well worth two hours of your life to watch, but not for the faint at heart.

I have read the other comments on here and think that many people missed the point. This documentary illustrated the banality of evil very powerfully; it did not preach or try to shove the makers' opinion down the viewers' throat, like SO many other so-called documentaries do. This is not one of those "documentaries" which show edited footage and historical footage as a mere backdrop to put forth someone's opinion. That's what made it so powerful, to see the people who committed this incomprehensible evil and those that suffered it asking their own questions, trying to make sense of it all, trying to justify it, analyzing their roles in real time as the cameras roll. It was very evident that this was the first time many of them had questioned themselves on what they had done. The repetitive re-enactment and explanation of the guard's day to day activities were horrific in their normality. Even after all these years, after all that's happened, these men had no qualms about showing the world their routines, making it obvious that they don't equate their actions directly to the effects it had on their fellow country men and women. One has to remember that the guards were brain washed and indoctrinated by the communists at a very young age. This can be directly equated with what's happening in the world today with militant Islam. They're creating their own amoral killers and fanatics by indoctrinating and brain washing children. If nothing else, this documentary shows how once indoctrinated at a young age with fanatical ideology, all that remains for the rest of that persons life is an empty shell incapable of comprehending basic humanity.