Enemies of the People

A compassionate but never overwrought exposé of the Khmer Rouge

by Emma SimmondsThursday, 09 December 2010

Reporter Thet Sambath, whose own brother was killed by the Khmer Rouge, confronts Brother Number Two, the ideologue of the Khmer Rouge Nuon Chea

Two members of Thet Sambath’s immediate family were murdered during the Khmer Rouge’s time in power in Cambodia. His father was killed when he objected to the organisation's seizure of his property, while his mother was then forced into marriage with a Khmer Rouge militia. She died soon after following complications in childbirth. His older brother, who had witnessed the brutal murder of his father, was also later executed. Enemies of the People, a documentary made with Rob Lemkin, is Sambath's illuminating, admirably restrained insight into a brutal regime.

As well as evoking sympathy for those who were the instruments of the Khmer Rouge’s brutality, the film also features troubling descriptions of their barbarism

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