Imagine being ripped from your home, and seeing your parents marched off into a field and executed. You are starved, tortured and forced to labor almost to the point of death for a period of four years.

The Khmer Rouge period made every Cambodian, born before 1975, a perpetrator, a victim, or both.

How do you live side-by-side with the people who murdered your family? Do you take revenge? Or, do you, in the interest of preserving the peace, forget?

Refugees were not all blameless victims. Khmer Rouge soldiers were also resettled abroad.

In the film a Khmer woman discovers that her father’s killer is alive in Australia. Her personal struggle, should she turn him in to the authorities, take revenge, or forgive and forget?

The directing debut for co-author, Tim Pek, himself, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge Genocide. “I was born in 1975, the year Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge.” Explains Pek. “We escape to Khoao I Dang refugee camp, in Aranyapret, Thailand in 1984.”

“Even in Australia, the adults talked often of the Khmer Rouge period, because they wanted us to never forget what happened.”

“I came to Australia in November 1994 at the age of 12.” Said co-author Rithy Dourng. “The Khmer Rouge murdered my grandfather.” But he is against the upcoming trials. “They should have been held 20 years ago, not now, that most Cambodians moving forward. The money spent on the trials should be used for poverty reduction, helping those in need of food and shelter.”

“Even though there were a lot of gruesome events, in the film, I have heard much worse, horror stories, from other people in the Khmer community.” Said Director Tim Pek. The reality of the Khmer Rouge regime was worse than fiction.

“Khmer youngsters still hold a grudge. I want them to open up, to forgive and forget and move on.” Said Pek. “I only hope that this little film will bring a new wave of hope and inspiration.”

See trailer and photos at: Website http://www.theredsensemovie.com/


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