Cambodian film director Rithy Panh’s documentary, “S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine,” is scheduled to make its international debut at the Cannes International Film Festival, a celebration of art-house film-making from around the world held annually in the South of France.
“S21,” Rithy Panh’s latest work, was filmed over three years at Phnom Penh’s former torture prison, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. It has been selected for the Special Screening category; it will not compete with other films for awards at the festival, which is scheduled to run from May 14 to May 25.
“I and my team and all my friends who supported the project are very happy about this news,” the director wrote in an e-mail from France. “We worked very hard for three years of shooting. Now the film exists, it is here, it will be seen.
“Our first thinking goes to all the victims of S21 and their memory,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the low-budget independent film “Moto Thief,” made by Hong Kong film-maker KM Lo and a team of Cambodian film students, made its world debut on Saturday at the International Family Film Festival in the US state of California.
“Moto Thief” was screened along with independent films from Australia, Scotland and the Philippines, among other nations, at an event that aims to promote “socially responsible films that are suitable for a general audience.”
