Development - Drama - 90 minutes
Shiiku addresses the issues of innocence, cruelty, free will and responsibility; dealing with the subject of a political regime that arms and indoctrinates children until they lose all their bearings and become killing machines.
Director(s) : Rithy PANH Writer(s) : Michel FESSLER, Rithy PANH
At the height of the Pacific War, a U.S. aircraft crashes into Cambodian mountains. The survivor is immediately taken prisoner by the local villagers. But the guy is Black. For the naïve, mesmerized young child telling this story, the man's nationality, race and language don't make him an enemy or a stranger, but merely an animal that needs to be taken care of. Rithy Panh brings this story into his native land, Cambodia. The time is 1975, just when the U.S. is about to be defeated in Vietnam. A' Pang, a little Cambodian child from the rice fields, who is responsible for guarding the prisoner, is already brain-washed by the Khmer Rouge ideology. Across the border in Vietnam, war is raging and the U.S. fighters fly over his country to bomb Vietnam. Will the child be able enough not to kill the black man, the enemy, an African-American guy who sings blues songs about his identity and the sufferings of his community back in native Louisiana?
Country(ies) : CAMBODIA Financing plan : Financing in Place USD 1,000,000 / PPP Goal Co-production