Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

One of the nominees for ‘Best Foreign Film’ at this year’s Oscars, The Missing Picture plays more like a documentary than a ‘normal’ film, using the interesting style of models to depict a terrible period in Cambodian history. The film is written and directed by Rithy Panh, who was 13 at the time the film is set, and was clearly deeply affected by his surroundings. For some reason, I never felt fully invested in the film and it times it did feel like a drag, despite its compelling subject matter. The story of the Khmer Rouge is tragic and horrific, but its story is better told in the fiction film ‘The Killing Fields’ which is very close to a masterpiece. Despite this, there’s a lot to admire about the craft and effort that went into recreating moments which would have been a difficult ordeal for Panh, and it’s worth watching if you’d like to find out a bit more about this particularly awful period of history.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Rithy Panh

Starring: Randal Douc (Narrator)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2852470/