Rithy Panh

Born Apr 18, 1964 · Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Rithy Panh (Khmer: ប៉ាន់ រិទ្ធី) is a French-Cambodian director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, actor and writer. During the years 1975 and following in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, he lost his parents and part of his family, and young Rithy witnessed the worst atrocities. He survived in 1979 where he managed to reach the Mairut camp in Thailand then arrived in France in 1980. Rithy Panh is the author of numerous works which all have as a backdrop a Cambodia which is having difficulty dressing its pieces of theater and Where Rithy demonstrates his talent for immortalizing slices of life in which the protagonists give the impression of engaging while forgetting the camera. His work is imbued with the work of memory and the pain of survivors of the Pol Pot regime. He tries to rediscover Cambodian culture through cinema.