Opisy(1)
About to be judged by a UN court, Douch, head of Red Kmer prison S 21, under whose tenure 14.000 inmates were tortured and executed for fabricated crimes – reviews his crimes. With the support of his lawyer, François Roux, Douch enters a protracted path towards personal responsibility, a therapeutic process. He would be the only Red Khmer member ever admitting to guilt or asking victims for forgiveness. But Roux's co-counsellor, himself a survivor of Pol Pot's regime, suddenly diverges from the line of defence, and strives for full acquittal – endangering a process of national consolation with the past. An intimate – though never sensationalist – film takes its time to fully explore its protagonists' emotions and evolves into a thriller-like drama upon entering the courtroom.
Silke Brandt
(DocPoint)