When Rithy Panh set out to make a movie on Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot last year, the celebrated Cambodian director faced a strange dilemma. The actors he chose to play the Communist dictator responsible for the genocide of two million people in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 kept disappearing. (Also read: Kannada film to light up Cannes Film Festival 2024 with Banjara sunrise folk tale ) Celebrated Cambodian director Rithy Panh at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
(Faizal Khan) "I found two actors, but they disappeared. The last one vanished just two weeks before the shooting was to start," says Panh, who shocked the world with graphic details of torture of prisoners by the Khmer Rouge regime in his 2003 documentary, S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India's general elections, only on the HT App.
Download Now! Download Now! "It is difficult for anyone in Cambodia today to play Pol Pot. You can't force people to play him," explains the Paris-based Panh, who instead decided to show the shadow of the former prime minister of Kampuchea as Cambodia was known then. "Okay, I thought if nobody was going to play him, I would play with his shadow," says Panh, who uses clay figurines of common people throughout the film to aesthetically merge fact and fiction.
"Cinema is magic. From a difficult situation you can do something amazing. For me it was much more interesting with the shadow than the real character.
" Rithy Panh's new documentary, .
