LA FRANCE EST NOTRE PATRIE (2015)

La "mission civilisatrice française”

France-Kambodia. Direction: Rithy Panh. Production: Catherine Dussart / Catherine Dussart Productions. Screenplay: Christophe Bataille. Music: Marc Marder. Edition: Rithy Panh. Running time: 74 min

LANGUAGE: French / SUBTITLES: Spanish

An unspoken approximation to the history of French colonisation in Indochina and the relationship between two conflicting societies forced to live with one another. With no words and only helped by music and images taken from a number of propaganda films and different archives, Cambodia’s moviemaker Rithy Panh –S-21, la machine de mort khmère rouge (2003), Le Papier ne peut pas envelopper la braise (2007), L'Image manquante (2013)– continues to look at his country’s recent history and here by extension at the history of many other nations to have experienced similar situations. Panh reflects with these evocative imagines and the ironic intertitles that accompany them on the past and a time past, all the while continuing to investigate the interaction between the cinema and history.