''The Conscience of Nhem En'' is a 26-minute documentary directed by Steven Okazaki, telling the stories of three survivors of the

Tuol Sleng Prison The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum ( km, សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង) or simply Tuol Sleng ( km, ទួលស្លែង, link=no, ; lit. "Hill of ...

. Also known as S-21, Tuol Sleng was where 17,000 Cambodians were imprisoned and killed in the late 1970s. The film follows a young soldier responsible for taking the ID photos of thousands of people before they were tortured and murdered by the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

. The documentary was nominated for an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology), ...

for Best Documentary Short.

Overview

Nhem En was 16 years old when he was the staff photographer at the Tuol Sleng Prison, also known as Security-21, where from 1975 to 1979 approximately 17,000 people were registered and photographed, then imprisoned and tortured before being killed. Only seven people are documented to have walked out of S-21 alive. Three of them tell their stories in the film.

Bou Meng Bou Meng ( km, ប៊ូ ម៉េង, ; born 1941) is one of only seven known adult survivors of the Khmer Rouge imprisonment in the S-21 Tuol Sleng camp, where 20,000 Cambodians were tortured and executed. He was arrested with his wife, Ma Yoe ...

, 34 years old at the time, survived because the prison needed an artist to paint portraits of Khmer Rouge leader

Pol Pot Pol Pot; (born Saloth Sâr;; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian revolutionary, dictator, and politician who ruled Cambodia as Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 and 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist a ...

. Chum Mey, 42 at the time, survived because he could fix sewing machines. Chim Math, 20 at the time, doesn't know why she survived.

References

External links

Official site
on Farallon Films * *
Original Photographs from Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison by Nhem En
2008 films American short documentary films Films about Cambodian Americans Documentary films about the Cambodian genocide Films directed by Steven Okazaki 2008 short documentary films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{hist-documentary-film-stub