Abstract
Rithy Panh's film S-21. The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) was the result of a three-year shooting period in the Khmer Rouge centre of torture where perpetrators and victims exchanged experiences and re-enacted scenes from the past under the gaze of the filmmaker's camera. Yet, a crucial testimony was missing in that puzzle: the voice of the prison's director, Kaing Guek Eav, comrade Duch. When the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) were finally established in Phnom Penh to judge the master criminals of Democratic Kampuchea, the first to be indicted was this desk criminal. The film Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell (R. Panh, 2011) deploys a new confrontation – an agon, in the terminology of tragedy ¬– between a former perpetrator and a former victim, seen through cinema language. The audiovisual document registers Duch's words and body as he develops his narrative, playing cunningly with contrition and deceit. The construction of this narrative and its deconstruction by Panh can be more fully understood by comparing some film scenes with other footage shot before, during and after the hearings. In sum, this 'chamber film' permits us to analyse two voices: the one of the perpetrator, including his narrative and body language; and the invisible voice of the survivor that expresses itself through editing, sound effects, and montage.
Highlights
The audiovisual document registers Duch’s words and body as he develops his narrative, playing cunningly with contrition and deceit. The construction of this narrative and its deconstruction by Panh can be more fully understood by comparing some film scenes with other footage shot before, during and after the hearings. This ‘chamber film’ permits us to analyse two voices: that of the perpetrator, including his narrative and body language; and the invisible voice of the survivor that expresses itself through editing, sound effects, and montage
This fortuitous encounter was to be the origin of the film S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003), in which guards, interrogators, executioners, and Fig. 1 the photographer come together to re-enact the past
Unrelenting, but using kind words, Lanzmann insists and keeps the camera rolling, as if he were subjecting the scene to the imperative of the ‘duty of memory’. This same strategy of traumatic reenactment is used by Rithy Panh in S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, albeit focusing on a group of perpetrators who perform their deed and express themselves in the presence of the victims, one of them acting as a sort of guide
Summary
Almost twenty years after the catastrophe, a victim and a perpetrator share the same stage by chance; the very same prison experienced from different perspectives This fortuitous encounter was to be the origin of the film S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003), in which guards, interrogators, executioners, and Fig. 1 the photographer come together to re-enact the past. Unrelenting, but using kind words, Lanzmann insists and keeps the camera rolling, as if he were subjecting the scene to the imperative of the ‘duty of memory’ This same strategy of traumatic reenactment is used by Rithy Panh in S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, albeit focusing on a group of perpetrators who perform their deed and express themselves in the presence of the victims, one of them acting as a sort of guide.. Artifacts, victims, perpetrators, and the filmmaker together build an atmosphere propitious to the emergence of the spectral past
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
