First They Killed MY Father (2017): Why You Should Watch It

The Netflix film, First They Killed My Father is about the journey of a five-year-old girl, Loung, in pursuit of surviving the terror-stricken reign of the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement of The Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. She lived with her middle-class family consisting of six siblings and two parents before they were forced out of their homes and taken to concentration camps.  

The two hour and sixteen minute movie starring Sareum Srey Moch is an adaptation of Loung Ung’s memoir on her real-life experiences. The movie was directed by Angelina Jolie and written by both Jolie and Ung. It falls under a couple genres, such as military movies and movies based on real life. It is set in Cambodia and can be described as dark and emotional. 

Although this film’s antagonist could be said to be the Khmer Rouge, the movie did not emphasize their role or the political aspects of the story. Instead, the film focuses on the characters’ lives and how the war impacted them, specifically the protagonist, Loung. It captured suffering well and the drama intensifies as you watch, leaving the viewer to empathize with the sadness evident on Loung’s face.  

This movie heavily focuses on the experiences and journey of Loung from a child’s perspective. This was achieved through good camera movements, extreme close ups, zooming in on Loung’s face, and zooming out to see her point of view which makes the story come alive. At the beginning, she is forced out of her home and her family travels a long journey on foot, all the while posing as an ordinary working-class family. This is done to avoid the outrage of the Khmer Rouge because knowledge of her father’s involvement with the prior government could get them killed.

Her father gets killed, as we all know from the title and the loss of her mom followed shortly after. She then separates entirely from her family, struggling alone and trying to survive the harsh conditions of working on farms and being forced into the role of child soldier for the ongoing war. The story steadily shows a slow hunt to reunite with her siblings, which did happen in the end except it was only five of them instead of seven. 

Jolie captures the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia that took place between 1975 to 1979 from the point of view of a girl who lived through it and it humanizes the story to help educate its viewers of the Cambodian genocide. It is hard to comprehend that what is shown in the movie happened in real life and that adds a whole different meaning to the movie.

The movie has a 4.5/5 rating on Netflix, and it is an interesting watch that you should add to your list!