Angelina Jolie has received a standing ovation at the Telluride Film Festival for her new film about a girl who lived in Cambodia during the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime.
First They Killed My Father, which Jolie directed and co-wrote, documents author Loung Ung's experience as a child soldier under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime that seized control of Cambodia in 1975, brutalising the people and inflicting a reign of terror.
Jolie attended the event with her entire brood of six: Maddox, 16; Pax, 13; Zahara, 12; Shiloh, 11 and twins Vivienne and Knox, 9.
Jolie's adopted Maddox from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002 and she spoke movingly about her experience after screening the film for Cambodian survivors, an effort that involved the co-operation of the king as well as the government.
"We ended up at Terrace of the Elephant in Angkor Wat, which is very special to the Cambodian people, screening outside, and it was extraordinary. It was so moving to see everybody watch. A lot of them said that night they were able to talk about it for the first time," Jolie said.
Relaxing onstage after the LA screening, Jolie admitted that during a visit several years ago she was "struck by how ignorant I was about what had happened" in Cambodia.
"I met people who had returned from the border camps, and was warned about land mines. But most of all I met people whose spirits were high. They're so generous, they're so gracious, their culture is so strong and I was so impressed by them. And during that trip I picked up a $2 book on a street corner, and it was her book. It changed my life."
First They Killed My Father will premiere on September on Netflix.
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