A hard film to watch, with a message impossible to ignore

Rating: 10/10 (22 October 2004)

The Killing Fields is a story that truly defines the meaning of the term 'man's inhumanity to man'. Imagine living in a country where it is illegal, and punishable by mutilation or death to speak French, where hospitals, schools and other public services are closed down, and where the entire population is forced to work long hours in the fields, and only being given one small bowl of thin soup with a few grains of rice per day to sustain yourself. That was Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The film portrays the story of Dith Pran, who somehow survived this nightmare and escaped to the West, but, as the film shows, many did not survive. If ever a film needed making, this was it. It's the most moving film I have ever seen, and the only one that has ever made me cry.