Paris Peace Accords 23 Oct. 1991

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

BROTHER NUMBER ONE the film follows Hamill’s brother Rob — an Olympian and Trans-Atlantic rowing champion — as he attends the war crimes trial of Comrade Duch - at Meta House


The film Brother Number One will be part of a double bill in Phnom Penh tomorrow night (Tuesday, 13 December) starting 7pm. Follows is the outline of the two films being shown at Meta House http://www.meta-house.com (NB there is no admission fee):

7PM: CLASSIC DOCUMENTARY - In 1978, the visit by a press delegation from a “friendly” country was part of the limited attempt by the Khmer Rouge to garner international support, beyond China, for the coming hostilities. Pol Pot, who (as a student) has had enjoyed summer holidays in Yugoslavia, invited skeptical journalist Nikola Vitoric and his crew from Yugoslav TV, who were then taken on a propaganda tour from Phnom Penh to the countryside. The foreign journalists were also able to capture the only existing TV interview with Khmer-Rouge-leader Pol Pot, slowly realizing that something was completely wrong in the “communist model state”. Meta House screens KAMPUCHEA 1978 (50 min) with English subtitles.

8PM: DOCUMENTARY - The death of Kerry Hamill in Phnom Penh’s Khmer Rouge prison S-21 in 1978 provided a tangible link for New Zealanders to a genocide that claimed two million Cambodian lives. Thirty years later, BROTHER NUMBER ONE (2011, 99 min) by acclaimed filmmaker Annie Goldson follows Hamill’s brother Rob — an Olympian and Trans-Atlantic rowing champion — as he attends the war crimes trial of Comrade Duch, one of the architects of the slaughter. He is there to make a victim impact statement but also to understand how his brother died, confront the man responsible and discover whether forgiveness is possible. Around Hamill's personal story, Goldson and her editors have skilfully and unobtrusively wound a larger story of Cambodian history. Assembled from what must have been hundreds of hours of footage and available archive material, BROTHER NUMBER ONE is a film that has come to life in the editor's hands.It moves, it speaks, and at its best, it entrances.

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