News / Amnesty film screening
SHETLAND’S branch of Amnesty International will be launching its contribution to a campaign against torture by screening a “highly unusual” documentary at the Shetland Museum later this month.
Its screening of ‘The Missing Picture’, by Cambodian director Rith Panh, will take place on Thursday 26 June, coinciding with a international day in support of victims of torture.
The film is a reconstruction of Panh’s memories of growing up in revolutionary Cambodia in the 1970s. He lost his immediate family in what became known as the Killing Fields, as well as many of his friends and neighbours to execution, torture and starvation.
Panh, still struggling to come to terms with his sense of grief, outrage and loss, tells the story through the use of carved clay figures and archival film shot by the Khmer Rouge. The carved figures seem to offer him a way of telling his story so that the pain of its re-telling can be managed.
The end result, which was nominated for the best foreign language award at this year’s Oscars, is described as a “haunting, evocative and emotionally searing story not just of one man’s still unsupportable loss, but of the suffering of a whole nation”.
Shetland Amnesty chairman Alex Wright said: “While many states have national anti-torture laws, torture is flourishing because governments are ignoring the law and the commitments they have made to stop this barbaric practice.
“Over the last five years, Amnesty has reported on torture in at least three quarters of the world – 141 countries, from every region. We in the Shetland Amnesty group intend to get behind this campaign vigorously – and screening ‘The Missing Picture’ is where we will start.
“We hope that as many people as possible will come and see it, and take the chance to talk to us afterwards.”
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