This documentary film, recounting the director's experience in the Cambodian genocide, is inventive, original, innovative, and at the same time, simple. This movie is Rithy Panh's artistic outlet in his midlife crisis. At the age of 50, Panh reflects on his childhood experience under the Pol Pot regime. At its core, this is his love letter to his art, film--it opens in a room full of burned film canisters. The only footage available from the period is propaganda, which was the only permitted use of cameras. But to tell the real story, the story that Panh lived, Panh has to create his own images to fill in the void of the eponymous Missing Picture. He does this by sculpting a multitude of carefully crafted clay figures, constructing still dioramas. The contrast of the innocent, child-like sculptures versus the atrocities of the regime is devastating. These constructed images are imbued with a sense of reality and authority. The best scenes are those that integrate the figurines into the actual footage. Panh's story is beautifully told through clear first person narration, with well placed pauses for dramatic effect. Panh brilliantly uses his art to confront this dark time in history.
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