Pol Pot Dancing

"In the royal palace of Cambodia, a dancer raises a boy like he was one of her own. Decades later, under the force of the Khmer Rouge, she discovers that her foster son is none other than Pol Pot. Enrique Sánchez Lansch tells the thrilling story of this horrible culture war combining choreographies with never seen archive material and interviews with eywitnesses.
A star dancer at the Cambodian royal court lovingly raises her husband’s little brother as her own son. Decades later, as a forced laborer under the oppressive rule of Khmer Rouge, she discovers that her foster son is none other than Pol Pot. The mass purges of the regime (spanning from 1975 to 1979 – Pol Pot annihilated 25% of Cambodia’s population) are intertwined with painful memories of the relatives of the bloodthirsty dictator, who today stage an impressive dance performance depicting an encounter between the leader of the Khmer Rouge and his foster mother. In this stunning documentary, valuable archival material is seamlessly combined with the images of the dancers, the traditional costumes, and the descriptions of the deep significance behind this major cultural expression of the Cambodian people, offering a flawless outcome, one that is profoundly melancholic, beautiful, and yet at the same time tragic. Art serves as pain relief for the greatest open wounds of History."
(Fruitmarket Kultur und Medien GmbH)

"There were only a few dancers who were able to pass on the precious tradition of classical dance after the dictatorship in Cambodia. The dictator Pol Pot had a complex relationship to the artform during his reign of terror. Through impressive dance sequences, the film takes up national and family histories and stresses the importance of dance for cultural memory and as a powerful medium of renewal."
(Ludwig Kramer - DOK.fest München)