As noted on 2.3.17, Angelina Jolie‘s First They Killed My Father (Netflix, undated release) chronicles the experience of author Loung Ung’s early childhood in Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime’s genocide of the late ’70s and early ’80s. It’s her third film about horrific punishment and torture visited upon innocents by hostile governments, the first being In The Land of Blood and Honey (i.e., the Serbian genocide of the ’90s) and the second being Unbroken (i.e., Japanese prison camp torture and deprivation during World War II).
Three thoughts: (1) At the very least the cinematography should be exciting with the great Anthony Dodd Mantle at the helm; (2) The fact that Jolie’s film recently premiered in Cambodia suggests it will debut on Netflix sooner rather than later (why would they trailer a film now if it wasn’t going to open within the next 60 days or thereabouts?), and yet the plan, I’ve been told, is to open it next fall — go figure; and (3) Jolie says in the featurette that employing her adopted, Cambodian-born son Maddox as a production assistant was a major motivator because “he has to know who he is” — this in itself gives pause as I’m not sure that Maddox acquainting himself with his ethnic identity and whatnot is of any particular importance to me as a Los Angeles-based filmgoer.