← Back to Reviews

The Missing Picture




The Missing Picture, 2013

In this narrative documentary, Rithy Panh uses clay figures and real historical footage to recount his family’s harrowing experience of forced relocation and labor under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s in Cambodia.

A compelling story makes for arresting viewing, even though the man behind the film at times seems to be kept at a distance.

There is a lot to like about this film, which effectively accomplishes big picture and small pictures storytelling as Panh recounts the specific events of his family’s tragic experiences against the backdrop of what was happening in all of Cambodia at the time.

The staging itself is very strong, with detailed and loving dioramas portraying sequences that range from homey and warm to brutal and despairing. At the beginning of the film, we watch as Panh carves and then meticulously paints a figurine of his own father, and the realization of the emotional intensity that would come from processing through such a recollection really hits home.

Panh goes on to detail the fates of his parents, his siblings, and himself as they grappled with a miserable life after being forced to leave their homes and become agricultural workers. Panh often uses the simple but effective trick of presenting his own memories---memories like watching people starve to death or listening to a pregnant woman beating her stomach until her fetus died--contrasted against the propaganda put out by the Khmer Rouge.

Panh notes that what allows a real revolution is cinema, and he also remarks upon the fact that the Khmer Rouge documented many of their own executions and other acts of violence. Thus the film becomes a triangle between the government’s propaganda, their documentation of their own actions against the people, and Panh’s memories of his childhood. While I knew about the violence in Cambodia during this time, I was unaware of the extent of the violence and death, with almost a fourth of the country’s population dying in those few short years.

Where the film does feel like it’s missing something is in the absence of the filmmaker himself. Of course, the words are his words, and the story is his story. But the voice speaking those words belongs to an actor. And aside from his hands at the beginning, we don’t see Panh very much. This creates, in a strange way, a bit of distance and occasionally it abstracts the story a little. The scenes are staged, not animated, and it all feels maybe a bit as if it’s been compartmentalized.

This is a minor complaint, though, as Panh’s story would be compelling no matter how it was told. I think that this film would be a good starting place, actually, for someone who doesn’t know much about the Khmer Rouge.

Finally: I would note to any animal lovers that suddenly in the second half of the film we get a series of real video footage excerpts showing some very cruel animal experimentation on living animals, something I wish I’d known about before watching. The scenes are archival, created by the Khmer Rouge to show off their scientific prowess, so not created for the film. But very disturbing, nonetheless.