The Missing Picture: Silent Screams!!!

Photo Courtesy  assets.nybooks.com

When it comes to history there is no truth only Cinema.  The truth nevertheless is a missing piece as the director and writer Rith Panh implies through his documentary film “The Missing Picture”. Critically acclaimed in the Cannes and Jeruselem Film Festival the film is set in that era of Cambodian history dredged in the blood of millions

As the Rith Pahn creatively suggests an ideology kills as effectively as religion. Any good intention that lack a proper understanding can do equal damage as a bad intention and Cambodia during the mid 1970’s is a classic example of the same. The twisted use of ideology portrayed in this film was difficult to comprehend as reality, as the totalitarian regime depicted was oddly reminiscent of George Orwell’s celebrated novel “1984”. As renowned author Steven Pinker once said “As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to genocide”. In this story that definable group is the non believers, those opposing the ideology that they once believed would deliver them from oppression, non believers fighting against the loss of identity, of humanity and more importantly their sense of self. But more than that this is a story of regret, regret for those lost moments, regret for the childhood that is waiting for reminiscence, regret for a life left unlived. 

Photo Courtesy  assets.nybooks.com

This film is full of such poignant moments of regret that has the power to reach out through the folds of time.The Missing Picture is Panh’s story of his own life under the brutal form of communism that turned the country into a mass Gulag camp run by the all-powerful entity called Angkar, the Communist Party of Kampuchea. The 1975 takeover of Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot and the events that followed are depicted with the help of clay figurines, original footage and party slogans in this pattern of experimental film making.  While the world was witness to the progress and development made by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the untold story of the sufferer’s, the working class that were forced to give up their identity and degraded to a mere animal existence is  brought to light through the firsthand account of the director and one of the survivors Rith Panh. While the skeptics may argue that the lack of any original character or animation may hinder the transmission of any kind of emotion from the characters to the viewers, the artistic use of sound, background and lighting has done wonders to bring out the emotional quotient in the film. Though the extent of the true sufferings can only be imagined, the background score gives a feeling of horror and trepidation that more than makes up for it. From the opening scene of waves crashing on to the screen to the silent screams etched on the face of the clay figurines the feeling of helplessness is evident. In a way it’s like drowning, while pulled down by the under currents no one hears you silent screams, no one hears your call for help and most importantly no one hears your cry to live.