Powerfully
narrated and excellently portrayed, The Missing Picture is a documentary that
has the capacity to haunt the viewers at night. It tells a story of tragedy and
brutality beyond human limits in the name of ideology that took place in
Cambodia in the 70’s with the awakening of Pol Pot and his ruthless followers
of Communist Party of Kampuchea vastly known as Khmer Rouge. Director Rithy
Panh takes the viewer in to this dark era by telling his story as a captive by
the Khemer Rouge where he was a small boy. This documentary movie is a mix of
documentary and news footage from the period and the rest is dramatic portrayal
of events using clay figures.
This
documentary has a good start, solid middle part and a strong ending. It is not
flawed nor over emphasizes on facts or hangs in a certain place for too long.
Therefore, it has a good flaw though the content is not that easy to bare. But
I must say that what strike me the most is the way director has used clay
figures and the narration. Nearly half of the movie has no moving parts. The
clay figures are in one place with wonderful details and only the camera moves
around them. The creative job done at the sets is simply mind blowing and for a
moment I forgot the tragedy and started to appreciate the beauty of creativity.
But soon things started to become so dark that at one point the viewers will
sympathize for those lifeless clay figures as much as they do for a human
being. This is powerful story telling and it is one of the best I have seeing.
The
Missing Picture will open your eyes to the bitter truths of a foregone era. No
matter how many times you have come across this tragic tale there is no escape
from the emotional bitterness. It
reminds us over and over that humans are what they believe they are for the
good or bad. And any human suffering because of another human cannot be justified
for any reason.
Genre:
Documentary
Director:
Rithy Panh
-Priyantha
Bandara
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