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My Experiences with Roland Joffe's 'The Killing Fields' - Part 1


Every now and then, there comes a film destined to be talked about for ages. Roland Joffe's 'The Killing Fields' was released in 1984 and it is set on the backdrop of much maligned and infamous Vietnam War. The film however is not set in Vietnam itself, it is set in Democratic Kampuchea instead, now known to us as Cambodia. Wars don't know boundaries and it certainly breached the Vietnamese boundaries to enter Cambodia in early 80s. Democratic Kampuchea was then under the miserable dictatorship regime of Pol Pot. Pol Pot was a communist sympathizer and Khmer Rouge, an indigenous terror group like the LTTE and ULFA, was his brainchild.

The movie tells the story of two THE NEW YORK TIMES reporters, Sydney Shanbarg and Dith Pran who were covering the intrusion of Vietnam War in Cambodia in 1980. When the situation deteriorated and it became quite clear that Khmer Rouge is going to take charge of the entire country, Americans and all the European journalists were immediately asked to leave the country. Sydney arranged for a forged American passport for his Cambodian friend and fellow journalist, Dith Pran but Pran refused to leave his motherland. What followed next in Cambodia was an insurgency of such depressing measures that entire country went into isolation, suffering from starvation, labor camps and untold repercussions of a brutal dictatorship of Pol Pot. Pran was subjected to starvation and labor camps for four years in Democratic Kampuchea but ultimately managed to flee to Thailand. In those four years, Mr. Shanbarg wrote more than 400 letters to Red Cross and many humanitarian organizations to arrange for the release of Dith Pran but he eventually came to terms with the rumored news of Dith's death until Dith rose from his ashes and let the world know about his whereabouts. Needless to say, Syd and Dith had a happy reunion after a long, long time.

Dith Pran was portrayed by Dr. Haing S. Ngor in the movie, a first time actor who was by profession a Gynaecologist in his native Cambodia. He is now dead but shared remarkable parallels with Dith's life. This post shall continue with Dr. Ngor's story and the tale of this amazing and once-in-a-lifetime movie in next part........Until then, you all can take a look over this phenomenon on Google and this could help you in engaging with the story by the time I come around with next part.............‪#‎GoodDay‬..........‪#‎TheKillingFields‬..........‪#‎NakedEmotions‬

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