MEETING WITH POL POT UNVEILS THE KILLING FIELDS
The devastation of Pol Pot’s rule in Cambodia was kept a secret until refugees emerged, as portrayed in 1984 film The Killing Fields. In the recently released Meeting with Pol Pot (Rendez-Vous avec Pol Pot), three French journalists are admitted in 1978 to provide public relations for the regime, including Alain Cariou (played by Grégoire Colin), a Marxist professor, who boasts that he was a close classmate of Pol Pot at the Sorbonne. Although filmed in today’s Cambodia, the film features documentary film footage and clay figurine diodramas. The first visit is to an art factory where statues are being carved and paintings are in progress. In one segment, their guide insists that Pol Pot should be painted with a smile. Later, paintings of Mao Tsetung are evident.
Although the journalists are housed together, each one gains a different perspective from the Potemkin village in which they are confined, the surrounding countryside, and a visit to the capital city Phnom Penh. With Sung (Bunhok Lim) as their guide, Cariou, Lise Delbo (Irène Jacob) and Paul Thomas (Cyril Gueï) meet each of the Khmer Rouge leaders who were later charged with humanitarian crimes, and the three view what they are told is the simple abode of Pol Pot, called “Brother Number 1,” with a copy of several books on a table, including The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Later, however, Pol Pot’s headquarters appears to be of 21st century vintage. After viewing the kitchen preparing food for the village, the three journalists are treated to a lavish meal, including cognac, quite in contrast with the food being consumed by Pol Pot’s local army, mostly teenagers who eat in silence.
Paul Thomas twice decides to escape the confinement to discover what his Cambodian hosts have tried to hide, taking along his camera. On the first excursion he discovers a killing field and starving Cambodians, but he never returns from his second unauthorized excursion. Lise Delbo interviews as many Cambodians as she can, searching for an old friend with unknown whereabouts. Alain Cariou gets to meet Pol Pot on two occasions, the first of which is dominated by a vigorous question-and-answer session, microphone in hand, conducted by Lise Delbo, whereas the second is a one-to-one session when he asks Pol Pot pointed questions about how the regime treats ordinary Cambodians. Sometime during the night Alain Cariou is gunned down, and Lise Delbo views his dead body the following morning.
What is most eloquent about the film is Pol Pot’s statements about his philosophy, an attempt to bring about a new society with neither rich nor poor, with urban intellectuals purged and dissenters eliminated at the local level so that the experiment can proceed. When asked about “human rights,” Pol Pot’s response is that Vietnam is a threat, so the issue is irrelevant. Pol Pot falsely claims that Vietnam has killed 500,000 Cambodians, whereas Pol Pot’s army was then engaging in aggression at the Vietnamese border.
Meeting with Pol Pot, directed by Rithy Panh, is loosely based on reporting within Elizabeth Becker’s When the War Was Over (1998). The character Lise Delbo is modeled after Elizabeth Becker, whereas academic Alain Badiou is the model for Alain Cariou. Richard Dudman was the third journalist. The Political Film Society has nominated Meeting with Pol Pot as the best film on human rights of 2025. MH