Rithy Panh

The Profile

Cambodian film director and survivor of the Khmer Rouge, known for films that explore memory, trauma and Cambodian history, including Les gens de la rizière, S-21 and The Missing Picture.

Born 1964 in Phnom Penh. Survivor of the Khmer Rouge who sought refuge in Thailand and later lived in Paris. His work focuses on recovering and preserving Cambodian memory.

The available review praises Rithy Panh's Les gens de la rizière as an intimate, painful portrait of a peasant family that doubles as a metaphor for Cambodia's national trauma. The film links daily life and rice cultivation to cycles of memory, loss and survival. The director's stated aim is to recover and preserve Cambodian memory.