Nine Circles of Hell

Nine Circles of Hell

In searching for films and documentaries to show at Meta House that haven't been seen, or very rarely, in Cambodia, I've heard about a film that was shot in Cambodia in 1987 and released a couple of years later. 130 minutes in length, it was made by Czech filmmaker Milan Muchna with the aid of the Cambodian Culture Ministry and called Nine Circles of Hell (Devet Kruhu Pekla). Set amidst the Khmer Rouge takeover, it tells the poignant story of a Czech doctor who falls in love with a Cambodian actress played by Oum Savanny and they have a child. Forced to leave the country, the doctor, played by Milan Knazko, returns after the KR regime is ousted to search for his child. As film making was still very much in its infancy in the 1980s, it may've been the only co-production movie set and filmed solely in Cambodia during that era, unless you know different.