Meeting with Pol Pot

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Meeting with Pol Pot

2025

1h 52m

Drama

History

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Popcornmeter

89%

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19 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) -- 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare. Freely inspired by journalist Elizabeth Becker's account in When the war was over.

Robert Abele

Los Angeles Times

Jun 23

Power shields its misdeeds with propaganda, but Panh sees such murderous lies clearly, giving them an honest staging, thick with echoes.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Jun 20

Panh combines sharply observed action with archival footage and diorama-like re-creations -- complete with clay figurines -- of horrors that went undepicted.

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Ben Kenigsberg

New York Times

Jun 12

Panh powerfully interweaves real footage of starvation and mass death — sometimes projecting it behind the characters or matching it to Paul’s eyeline.

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Ria Dhull

Spectrum Culture

Jun 18

Panh is a strong documentarian, and many of his methods work well in his latest fictional film, Meeting with Pol Pot; however, he is still much better with fact than fiction.

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Michael Atkinson

LA Weekly/Village Voice

Jun 13

Meeting with Pol Pot is an ellipsis of a movie, purposefully so...

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Dave Giannini

InSession Film

Jun 9

B+

There are no easy answers. Not to why terrible things happen. Not for what is the correct form of government. But once again, there are lines.

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Jithin K

@Jithin 12/17/2024

A well-made film based on a true story. But when the film doesn't really offer a whole lot new in terms of presenting such a type of story about white people in a foreign dictatorship, the skewed perspective that is very Western-centric without giving the full picture leaves me with a mixed feeling. My lack of knowledge of Cambodian history might have affected my enjoyment or lack of it in this case.

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Synopsis

Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) -- 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare. Freely inspired by journalist Elizabeth Becker's account in When the war was over.

Director: Rithy Panh
Producer: Catherine Dussart, Rithy Panh, Justine O., Roger Huang, Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Hanaa Issa, Mehmet Zahid Sobaci, Muhammed Ziyad Varol, Mirsad Purivatra, Jovan Marjanovic, Georges-Marc Benamou
Screenwriter: Rithy Panh, Pierre Erwan Guillaume
Distributor: Strand Releasing
Production Co: CDP, Anupheap Production
Genre: Drama, History
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 13, 2025, Limited
Runtime: 1h 52m