A film not to be missed

Get along to Meta House on Street 264 near Wat Botum in Phnom Penh later tonight (7pm) to watch what promises to be an extraordinary film - Kampuchea : Death and Rebirth - compiled by the East German filmmakers Walter Heynowski and Gerhard Scheumann immediately after the expulsion of the Khmer Rouge from power in the spring of 1979. It's unique and raw footage from a devastated Cambodia, showing scenes that have become infamous around the globe of an empty city left to rampant nature, the shocking evidence of mass killings and a harrowing look at the faces of the survivors. The film is 89 minutes in length and features an interview with one of the KR leaders Ieng Thirith, who is currently awaiting trial in Phnom Penh. A year later, the filmmakers made a 90-minute feature documentary called The Angkar, again focusing on the Khmer Rouge. Heynowski and Scheumann were amongst the most productive and best known GDR documentarists and perceived documentary films as an instrument of political intervention. Between 1965 and 1991, they produced more than 70 films together – temporarily with their own production company Studio H&S (1969-1982). They initially set out to discredit West Germany but soon fixed their focus on conflicts of decolonization and postcolonial struggles within the context of the Cold War. Their numerous films on Congo, Chile, Vietnam, Libya and Cambodia contain in part unique footage of momentous world events in the 20th century.

Later in the month, the Meta House will show Dogora (on 19 April), a street level documentary without a plot, actors or script, by Patrice Leconte (2004, 80 mins); and James Gerrand's Cambodia, Kampuchea, which draws on unique archival and propaganda material to detail the tragedy of Cambodia. The film was made in 1986 and will be shown on 26 April.

Tags: cambodia