When the Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh, the first thing they did was to evacuate the population. Then they took over. The point of a revolution is to bring justice to the people, so even if you don't have proof of sabotage, you manufacture it.
— Rithy Panh
I think that, as a filmmaker, you're always making the same film, regardless of how many different stories you tell. This is the case for me, whether I'm making documentaries or fiction films.
We need creativity. We need more poetry after Auschwitz.
Every time you are getting ready to make a shot in a documentary film, you are asking yourself questions about your cinematographic approach. You are approaching the truth, but the image is never the truth itself.
I wasn't predestined to be a filmmaker; this wasn't an obvious choice to me.
In all of my films, there is a desire to testify, to interrogate the past.
Totalitarians always want to kill culture. But imagine life without football, Faulkner, or Bob Dylan. It's not life.
