First They Killed My Father | Rotten Tomatoes

First They Killed My Father

2017

2 hr. 16 min.

Biography

History

Drama

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List

88%

73 Reviews

Tomatometer

81%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Loung Ung is 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge assumes power over Cambodia in 1975. They soon begin a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly 2 million Cambodians die. Forced from her family's home in Phnom Penh, Ung is trained as a child soldier while her six siblings are sent to labor camps.

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Netflix

Watch First They Killed My Father with a subscription on Netflix.

Critics Consensus

First They Killed My Father tackles its subject matter with grace, skill, and empathy, offering a ground-level look at historic atrocities that resonates beyond its story's borders.

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Luis M. D

A historic drama narrated by a real-life survivor. It's as tense and gut-wrenching as the 1984 movie ‘The Killing Fields'. Definitely good!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

11/24/23

Full Review

John S

Very well done, shows humanity amid the brutality of the Khmer Rouge. Correctly recalls the cultural milieu of the 1970s in post colonial phnom phen.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/27/23

Full Review

Jennifer M

This was such an amazing story. I almost didn't watch since it was in a foreign language, but I am so glad I kept on. You really get a great sense of the daily life these people went through and it was sad to see how these children were used and abused. I would definitely recommend watching this!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

08/30/23

Full Review

Yien T

Powerful performance by the actors especially little Sareum Srey Moch. A difficult movie but a must- see.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/08/23

Full Review

john f

An important addition to the films portraying this era in Southeast Asia, and an improvement in some ways to the classic The Killing Fields (namely in its ability to focus more attention on the Khmer people while doing so in a sensitive and humanizing way). That said, the film still does not offer explanations for the decisions made by the Khmer Rouge (the fact that Pol Pot's ideas had come directly out of China), and the portrayal of the Vietnamese invasion and occupation is overly positive and incomplete (to be fair that wasn't the focus of this film).

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

amazing film! thank you Angelina and cast

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Angelina Jolie

Director

Sareum Srey Moch

Loung Ung

Phoeung Kompheak

Pa Ung

Sveng Socheata

Ma Ung

Tharoth Sam

Khmer Rouge Leader

Angelina Jolie

Screenwriter

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First They Killed My Father: Trailer 1

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Tara Brady

Irish Times

[Angelina] Jolie's fourth narrative feature,confirms her as an exquisite craftswoman and an artist capable of tackling geopolitical complexities.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 22, 2017

Full Review

Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

Jolie's latest is a strong adaptation of Loung's mind-blowing story, all of it anchored by a performance from Sareum that's simply marvelous.

Rated: 3.5/4

Sep 22, 2017

Full Review

Stephanie Zacharek

TIME Magazine

First They Killed My Father is a sensitively rendered account of one child's real-life experience, but its broader implications are noteworthy too.

Sep 21, 2017

Full Review

Keith Garlington

Keith & the Movies

As a kid it wasn't a history class that first educated me on the Khmer Rouge and the atrocities committed by their hand. It was a movie – 1984’s powerful “The Killing Fields”. Now I feel another movie is reopening my eyes.

Rated: 4.5/5

Aug 20, 2022

Full Review

Hosea Rupprecht

Pauline Center for Media Studies

Angelina Jolie's latest directorial effort, First They Killed My Father, captures the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia from 1975-1979 through the eyes of a girl who lived it.

Aug 25, 2021

Full Review

Film Companion Staff

Film Companion

Angelina Jolie's Khmer-language war-period thriller is an empathetic, informative and unerringly elegant dissection of Cambodia's bloody history through the eyes of a 5-year-old girl...

Oct 28, 2020

Full Review

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Synopsis

Loung Ung is 5 years old when the Khmer Rouge assumes power over Cambodia in 1975. They soon begin a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly 2 million Cambodians die. Forced from her family's home in Phnom Penh, Ung is trained as a child soldier while her six siblings are sent to labor camps.

Director: Angelina Jolie
Executive Producer: Charles J.D. Schlissel
Screenwriter: Angelina Jolie, Loung Ung
Production Co: Netflix
Genre: Biography, History, Drama
Original Language: Khmer
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 15, 2017

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