Thet Sambath was a reporter for the Phnom Penh Post during the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in the late 1970s, the only survivor from his family during Pol Pot’s reign. Nearly two million more died in the “killing fields.” Sambath worked for over a decade to gain the trust of ex-assassins, usually illiterate peasants, to hear their stories of murder and massacre, as well as the octogenarian Nuon Chea, who had been Pol Pot’s second in command. Sambath’s calm in the face of these “Enemies of the People” (which he and Rob Lemkin co-direct) is a marvel of restraint. Their victims were the original “enemies of the people” in Khmer Rouge-speak; the title ironically tips back onto them. There are many models of on-camera interviewing style, but Sambath’s quiet confrontation of Nuon Chea may be the most harrowing of his close-up interrogations. Disturbing, rueful, cathartic, “Enemies of the People” is filled with remembrances like “I slit so many throats that my hand ached so I switched to stabbing in the neck.” And that’s one of the understated ones. An overemphatic score distracts, but only slightly. 93m. (Ray Pride)
“Enemies of the People” plays Friday-Monday and Wednesday at Siskel.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
RECOMMENDED
