Cambodian Director Rithy Panh to Receive Fajr Peace Award
TEHRAN.(Iranart) – W riter-director Rithy Panh of Cambodia will receive the Fajr Peace Award at the 36th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran for his cinematic works which mostly focus on humanitarian issues.
Panh, 53, is the co-producer of the documentary film ‘First They Killed My Father’ (2017) directed by Angelina Jolie, which focuses on the aftermath of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. It was selected as the Cambodian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the 90th Academy Awards.
According to the FIFF website, the Fajr Peace Award aims to raise awareness for the social relevance of films, and to make active use of the influence of movies and documentaries on the perception and resolution of global social, political and humanitarian challenges.
Rithy’s father was a long time undersecretary at the ministry of education, a senator, a school teacher and inspector of primary schools. His family and other residents were expelled from the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge. Rithy’s family suffered under the regime, and after he saw his parents, siblings and other relatives die of overwork or malnutrition, Rithy escaped to Thailand in 1979, where he lived for a time at a refugee camp at Mairut.
Eventually, he made his way to Paris. It was while he was attending vocational school to learn carpentry that he was handed a video camera during a party and became interested in filmmaking. He went on to graduate from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques (Institute for the Advanced Cinematographic Studies). He returned to Cambodia in 1990, while still using Paris as a home base.
Film Career
His first documentary feature film ‘Site 2’ about a family of Cambodian refugees in a camp on the Thai-Cambodian border in the 1980s, was awarded Grand Prix du Documentaire at the Festival of Amiens in France.
His 1994 film ‘Rice People’ is told in a docudrama style, about a rural family struggling with life in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia. It was in competition at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and was submitted to the 67th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, the first time a Cambodian film had been submitted to the Oscars.
The 2000 documentary ‘The Land of the Wandering Souls’ also told of a family’s struggle as well as showing a Cambodia entering the modern age, chronicling the hardships of workers digging a cross-country trench for Cambodia’s first optical fiber cable.
More post-Khmer Rouge events are documented in the 2005 drama ‘The Burnt Theater’ which focuses on a theater troupe that inhabits the burned-out remains of Phnom Penh’s Suramet Theater, which caught fire in 1994 but has never been rebuilt.
His 2013 documentary film ‘The Missing Picture’ was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival where it won the top prize. It won the Lumières Award for Best Documentary at the 21st Lumières Awards and was nominated for the César Award for Best Documentary Film at the 41st César Awards. The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards too. Presided over by Iranian film writer and director Reza Mirkarimi, the 36th FIFF will be held in Tehran April 19-27.