S21, la machine de mort khmere rouge (S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine)

For several year now Cambodian society has been stirred up by the possibility that those responsible for the Khmer Rouge genocide could be brought to trail. This is the context in which filmmaker Rithy Panh has undertaken a film project based on confronting the memories of victims who managed to escape with those of their former torturers. By comparing their testimony, the everyday workings of Tuol Sleng, the torture center in Phnom Penh, will be reconstituted. But above all, if the film allows words to emerge to vanquish terror, to enable people to try to go on living after the horror of the genocide, it will enable the reconstitution of a collective memory by bringing individual memories face-to-face. The film is a space for dialogue in which each individual accepts his responsibilities in relation to history. It is not a courtroom piece but an attempt to understand because as Primo Lévi says: “Understanding everything is almost the same as forgiving.”.