Vann Nath, the memory painter

In Cambodia, between April 17, 1975 and January 7, 1979, the Khmer Rouge perpetrated a genocide that claimed 1,700,000 victims. Symbolic of this regime of terror are the extermination centers, numbering 190. The most famous is a former high school in Phnom Penh, Tuol Sleng, also known as S-21, where 14,000 Cambodians were tortured and executed.

Only seven prisoners will survive. Among them is a painter, Vann Nath, who will never cease, until his death in September 2011, to testify through his paintings, where he realistically describes the crimes, he witnessed. His entire artistic activity is based on the promise he and several of his friends made to Tuol Sleng to tell what they had been through if they had the chance to make it out alive.

Beyond the portrait of a great witness to the history of the 20th century, this film aims to study the processes of collective memory in Cambodia and the way in which the transmission of the genocide takes place.

 

RETURN TO “10th Anniversary of painter VANN Nath’s memories ” (Home page) »

CHAPTER 1. The background of painter “VANN NATH”

CHAPTER 2 “Tuol Sleng Prison (S.21)” »

 

Vann Nath, the memory painter (VANN NAT le peintre-mémoire)

By Soko PHAY – Vakalis, 2013, 25 minutes, Khmer and French version