From darkness into light

Director’s story touches crowd.

David Egan, center, joins in a standing ovation for directors Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin after watching their documentary “Enemies of the People” at the Missouri Theatre Saturday afternoon. Sambath’s father died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s, and the film explores Sambath’s search for truth about the regime’s killings. (Photo by Parker Eshelman)

Sambath (Photo: Parker Eshelman)

Sunday, February 28, 2010
By Jonathon Braden
Columbia Daily Tribune

Correction appended

Toward the end of “Enemies of the People,” the documentary screeches to a halt when the rich soundtrack recedes, the color drains from the frames and stark black-and-white images of rotting bodies and skeletons flash across the screen.

During yesterday’s midday showing of the film at the True/False Film Fest’s Missouri Theatre venue, the crowd of more than 900 fell silent as the images from the killing fields of Cambodia screamed out on the big screen.

The loss of his family in the Khmer Rouge regime’s killing fields was what led co-director Thet Sambath on the journey that culminated in “Enemies.” He began the project more than a decade ago with the goal of finding out the truth about the Khmer Rouge’s killing of an estimated 2 million Cambodians — his father and brother included.

Please click here to read more...