L'Image Manquante or The Missing Picture from Cambodia received a surprise Foreign Film Oscar Nomination even though it is a documentary, a critically acclaimed one as director Rithy Panh re-imagines his childhood from Khemer Rouge (1975-79) infected Cambodia, Some bits of archival footage are present and what is missing from the story the director brings all together with sculpted, clay painted figurines to replace the missing images. One thing I will admit is that the narrator's voice over whether in French or English puts you soothingly in a different time and place. Cambodia of that period was "the worst of times", to state part of Dickens opening line in A TALE OF TWO CITIES. This doc makes the world aware of the historical immensity of a very painful period now long, long gone. The physically hard work in creating such marvelous figures, the intention of the documentary so noble, one man's enduring spirit to make it come to life: IT IS ALL ON SUCH A GRAND SCALE. Thus it pains me to the point of guilt that I could not be infused with the spirit of the documentary, finding the doc very difficult to view from my own lack of interest. Many. Many others, I'm sure will find this ennobling.
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