Festival de Cannes 2024

Aymerick Pilarski, AFC, talks about his work on "Rendez-vous with Pol Pot", by Rithy Panh

"Big Brother", by François Reumont

Contre-Champ AFC n°357

[ English ] [ français ]

After several documentaries on the Cambodian genocide, filmmaker Rithy Panh decided to venture into fiction, recreating the true story of journalists who got the only interview with the Khmer Rouge leader in 1978. This ambitious work combines scenes led by a prestigious cast, cutaway shots from archival footage, and long tracking shots of childlike models reminiscent of Michel Gondry’s style. The result is a strange film where naivety blends with historical reconstruction and characters sometimes happened to be on another planet. Aymerick Pilarski, AFC, lensed this show presented in the official Cannes Première selection. (FR)

1978. For three years, Cambodia, now Democratic Kampuchea, has been under the rule of Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge. The country is economically exhausted, and nearly two million Cambodians have perished in a still-unspoken genocide. Three French have accepted the regime’s invitation and hope to secure an exclusive interview with Pol Pot : a woman journalist familiar with the country, a photojournalist, and an intellectual sympathetic to the revolutionary ideology. But the reality they perceive beneath the propaganda and the treatment they receive gradually begin to undermine each of their certitudes.
With Irène Jacob, Grégoire Colin, Cyril Guei, Bunhok Lim, Somaline Mao.


https://vimeo.com/982511406/afdea5c3fa?share=copy

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot, directed by Rithy Panh
DoP : Aymerick Pilarski, AFC
Editing : Rithy Panh, Matthieu Laclau
Sound : Nicolas Volte, Tu Duu-Chih, Eric Tisserand, AFSI, Tu Tse-Kang
Set design : Mang Sareth, Sou Kimsan, Chanry Krauch
Costumes : Ariane Viallet
Production manager : Sovichea Cheap
Music : Marc Marder.