The movie will be followed up by a panel discussion with the film's director Rob Lemkin.
Enemies of the People turns the camera onto Nuon Chea aka Brother Number Two, the highest ranking Khmer Rouge leader still alive today. The Khmer Rouge was one of the twentieth century's most brutal regimes. While in power, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for the deaths of approximately 1.7 million people by execution, starvation and forced labor in camps that were later described as the Killing Fields.In the film, one of Cambodia's best investigative journalists, Thet Sambath, persuades Nuon Chea to admit, for the first time, how he and Pol Pot (the two supreme powers in the Khmer Rouge state) decided to kill party members whom they considered 'Enemies of the People'. The mystery of the Killing Fields is unveiled as the men and women who perpetrated the massacres break a 30-year silence to give testimony never before seen or heard.
Enemies of the People has screened at countless festivals throughout the country, but the prize that speaks volumes about it's quality is its Special Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at this year's Sundance. Most fans of the movie mention how the film scores an interview with the most powerful living member of the Khmer Rouge, Noun Chea, set to stand trial for his crimes next year. But equally compelling are the countless interviews with the otherwise peace-loving farmers and peasants who were forced to carry out the killings. As Stephen Holden points out, the film is a "disquieting testament to the fact that ordinary individuals under extreme pressure will carry out the most monstrous crimes."
These sorts of discussions and films with little chance of mass distribution are what make these types of cultural events indispensable to any arts-loving community. Get your tickets here before they sell out.
Enemies of the People Movie Trailer from Rob Lemkin on Vimeo.
