The Missing Picture

Synopsis

For many years, I have been looking for the missing picture: a photograph taken between 1975 and 1979 by the Khmer Rouge when they ruled over Cambodia… On its own, of course, an image cannot prove mass murder, but it gives us cause for thought, prompts us to meditate, to record History. I searched for it vainly in the archives, in old papers, in the country villages of Cambodia. Today I know: this image must be missing. I was not really looking for it; would it not be obscene and insignificant? So I created it. What I give you today is neither the picture nor the search for a unique image, but the picture of a quest: the quest that cinema allows.

Director Biography

Cambodian director, Rithy Panh graduated from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques (IDHEC), France. He started his career by directing documentaries. In 1994, he directed his first fiction movie Neak Srê selected for competition at Cannes. In 1995, he was in charge of l’Atelier Varan in Cambodia. In 1998, his second feature film Un soir après la guerre was selected at Cannes Official Selection Un Certain Regard. Since 1997, he has directed three new documentaries. In 2000 he directed the television film Que La Barque se brise, que la jonque s’entrouvre.