The Missing Picture

Recreating Stories of the Khmer Rouge

The critically acclaimed, The Missing Picture, a 2014 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language film, is filmmaker Rithy Panh's personal quest to re-imagine his childhood memories. From the time when the Khmer Rouge ruled over Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, the only recorded artifacts that remain are propaganda footage. Panh uses beautifully detailed sculpted clay figurines and elaborate dioramas to recreate the missing images from his memory. His recollections of his family and friends before and after the regime's rule are poignantly told through a narrator's poetic voice. The Missing Picture is a unique documentary that manages to capture a historical moment that would never be told if not for the sheer creative mind of Panh and his innovative storytelling method.