AsiaLIFE

With over a dozen films to his credit, the director/producer/writer has never shied away from tough subject matter. In an AsiaLIFE exclusive, Mai Lynn Miller Nguyen hears from the man behind The Killing Fields about his plans to revisit Cambodia.

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As the director of The Killing Fields, Roland Joffe brought the story of Cambodia’s darkest years to movie screens around the world. Filmed less than 10
years after the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge, The Killing Fields gave a human face to the struggles in Cambodia.

Sweeping the 1985 Academy Awards for Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Actor in a Supporting Role, as well as earning nominations for Best Director and Best Picture, the film was ground-breaking at its time—and continues to have an impact to this day.

Joffe has his eye set on Cambodia once more. Though currently in production on Singularity in India, he is already envisioning his next project: Telling the story of Cambodians with disabilities. Landmines continue to devastate the countryside, leaving grim reminders of the hate and total disregard for human life during the war years. Yet increased opportunities for athletes with disabilities, such as the coming July World Cup for disabled volleyball in Phnom Penh, will provide the more positive aspect of the film.

Though the film is still in early stages, Joffe shed some light on his motivations and plans for the project.

Over 27 years have passed since you filmed The Killing Fields. Why have you decided to focus on Cambodia again?
I have visited Cambodia a couple of times since making that movie. Ironically, we had to shoot [The Killing Fields] in Thailand, as Cambodia was closed during the time we were shooting. But through my engagement with the Cambodia Trust and its wonderful and consistent work in prosthetics and orthotics—the Trust’s prosthetics and orthotics school is one of the best in Asia, and enrolls pupils from all over the world—I have stayed emotionally connected to Cambodia, its people and progress.

Why focus on landmines and athletes with disabilities?
It seems to me that this could be a film about courage, about friendship and despair, and growth and the dignity of self repair.... among other themes.

Your support for The Cambodia Trust has been instrumental for projects that help people with disabilities throughout the region. How did you come to be personally involved with this charity?
On my first trip to Cambodia many years ago, I was struck not only by the number of amputees and the ongoing cost of landmines in limbs and human beings but by the awful wooden legs people were struggling to get around on. It seemed unacceptable to me that people should have to suffer in this way. So, with like-minded and caring friends was born the concept of turning Cambodia’s misfortune into a positive and developing a Cambodian school to train orthotists and prosthetists as well as manufacturing high-quality legs in Cambodia itself.

Where do you expect the film be shot?
It’s early days to answer that kind of detailed question, but I would expect to be filming around Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang.

Do you consider this film as a sequel of sorts to The Killing Fields?
Well, I suppose it can’t help being a kind of sequel. Like The Killing Fields, it will be based on real events and experiences. Like The Killing Fields, it will unavoidably be a story about the redemptive power of friendship.

A few of your films, such as The Killing Fields, The Mission and There Be Dragons (currently showing in theatres worldwide), are deeply rooted in the weighty topics of history, war and religion. What impact do you hope for with your work?
I want people to be emotionally moved, to make connections, to admire and love the personal courage and bravery, to admire human beings’ many wonderful qualities, as well as reflect on their shortsighted propensity to hate [and] destroy.

What are the main messages of There Be Dragons?
There Be Dragons is about forgiveness. It’s also about love in its many forms and hate.

Do you have any advice for local filmmakers?
Stick at it. Stay ambitious. Tell the truth. Learn English, and by that I don’t mean abandon your roots, I mean take your place in the international market for films. English (for the moment) is its operating language.

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