
Directing
Rithy Panh
Born
1964-04-18 (62)
Place of birth
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Known for
Directing
Credits
45 titles
Rithy Panh (Khmer: ប៉ាន់ រិទ្ធី) is a French-Cambodian director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, actor and writer. During the years 1975 and following in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, he lost his parents and part of his family, and young Rithy witnessed the worst atrocities. He survived in 1979 where he managed to reach the Mairut camp in Thailand then arrived in France in 1980. Rithy Panh is the author of numerous works which all have as a backdrop a Cambodia which is having difficulty dressing its pieces of theater and Where Rithy demonstrates his talent for immortalizing slices of life in which the protagonists give the impression of engaging while forgetting the camera. H…
Known for
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Kulturplatz
2004
7.4A 5-year-old girl embarks on a harrowing quest for survival amid the sudden rise and terrifying reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
First They Killed My Father
2017
5.9Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) - 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare.
Meeting with Pol Pot
2024
7.2Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
The Missing Picture
2013
5.3The film centers on a young French widow and her two adolescent children as they attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930s. Their efforts are hampered each year by the presence of the sea, which invariably floods the fields with saltwater and wipes out the crops. In desperation, the mother realizes that their only hope lies in the construction of a sea wall to prevent continued flooding, but the mother must cut a swath through the local bureaucracy in an almost Sisyphean attempt to make this happen. Meanwhile, her obstinate daughter, Suzanne, draws the romantic obsessions of a well-to-do Chinese gentleman, Monsieur Jo. Though he could easily provide a way out, the possibility of a romantic relationship between Jo and Suzanne could just as easily fall prey to local racial prejudices that would damage or ruin the lives of both.
The Sea Wall
2009
5.3Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
Film credits
2020s · 3 titles
5.9Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) - 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare.
Meeting with Pol Pot
2024
NRWandering Souls follows the mounting of a new stage production, Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, to honour the nearly 2 million Cambodians who died during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. Commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts, the Requiem is a first-time collaboration between filmmaker Rithy Panh and composer Dr. Him Sophy. The film tracks the story of the Cambodian creators and musicians, as they work with an international team to bring the production to the world stage. Alongside the evolving stage production, the film tells the first-hand survival stories of the Cambodians involved in the Requiem, and their powerful will to reclaim an artistic heritage that disappeared during the four years of Pol Pot terror.
Wandering Souls
2020
NR"Life in 24 Frames a Second" is a film about hardship, misfortune, perseverance and triumph. The personal stories of John Woo (The Killer), Anurag Kashyap (Sacred Games), Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture) and Lav Diaz (The Woman Who Left), who survived extreme poverty, disease, sexual abuse, genocide and civil war to go on to become maestros of world cinema. 'Survivors' united by their abiding love of the movies.
Life in 24 Frames a Second
2021
Series credits
Behind the camera
7.4A 5-year-old girl embarks on a harrowing quest for survival amid the sudden rise and terrifying reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
First They Killed My Father
2017
5.9Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) - 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare.
Meeting with Pol Pot
2024
5.9Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) - 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare.
Meeting with Pol Pot
2024
7.2Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
The Missing Picture
2013
7.2Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
The Missing Picture
2013
5.3The film centers on a young French widow and her two adolescent children as they attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930s. Their efforts are hampered each year by the presence of the sea, which invariably floods the fields with saltwater and wipes out the crops. In desperation, the mother realizes that their only hope lies in the construction of a sea wall to prevent continued flooding, but the mother must cut a swath through the local bureaucracy in an almost Sisyphean attempt to make this happen. Meanwhile, her obstinate daughter, Suzanne, draws the romantic obsessions of a well-to-do Chinese gentleman, Monsieur Jo. Though he could easily provide a way out, the possibility of a romantic relationship between Jo and Suzanne could just as easily fall prey to local racial prejudices that would damage or ruin the lives of both.
The Sea Wall
2009
5.3The film centers on a young French widow and her two adolescent children as they attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930s. Their efforts are hampered each year by the presence of the sea, which invariably floods the fields with saltwater and wipes out the crops. In desperation, the mother realizes that their only hope lies in the construction of a sea wall to prevent continued flooding, but the mother must cut a swath through the local bureaucracy in an almost Sisyphean attempt to make this happen. Meanwhile, her obstinate daughter, Suzanne, draws the romantic obsessions of a well-to-do Chinese gentleman, Monsieur Jo. Though he could easily provide a way out, the possibility of a romantic relationship between Jo and Suzanne could just as easily fall prey to local racial prejudices that would damage or ruin the lives of both.
The Sea Wall
2009
5.3Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019
7.4Documentary of the S-21 genocide prison in Phnom Penh with interviews of prisoners and guards. On the search for reasons why this could have happened.
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
2003
7.4Documentary of the S-21 genocide prison in Phnom Penh with interviews of prisoners and guards. On the search for reasons why this could have happened.
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
2003
7.4Documentary of the S-21 genocide prison in Phnom Penh with interviews of prisoners and guards. On the search for reasons why this could have happened.
S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
2003
6.0After a century of genocidal ideologies and destructive speciesism, animals have enslaved humans and taken over the world. In a wave of hope, the statues of the past have been removed but new ones are being erected to suppress the will of the people. This is now a planet of apes, boars and lions, and a zoological revolution is reversing and recreating the atrocities of the 20th century.
Everything Will Be OK
2022
6.0After a century of genocidal ideologies and destructive speciesism, animals have enslaved humans and taken over the world. In a wave of hope, the statues of the past have been removed but new ones are being erected to suppress the will of the people. This is now a planet of apes, boars and lions, and a zoological revolution is reversing and recreating the atrocities of the 20th century.
Everything Will Be OK
2022
6.0After a century of genocidal ideologies and destructive speciesism, animals have enslaved humans and taken over the world. In a wave of hope, the statues of the past have been removed but new ones are being erected to suppress the will of the people. This is now a planet of apes, boars and lions, and a zoological revolution is reversing and recreating the atrocities of the 20th century.
Everything Will Be OK
2022
NRThe Indigenous Bunong practice agriculture by hand and end up in conflict with Cambodia's lucrative trade in CO2 certificates, losing the forest of whose ownership they have no conception. Now and then, split screen. A visual firework display.
We Are the Fruits of the Forest
2025
NRThe Indigenous Bunong practice agriculture by hand and end up in conflict with Cambodia's lucrative trade in CO2 certificates, losing the forest of whose ownership they have no conception. Now and then, split screen. A visual firework display.
We Are the Fruits of the Forest
2025
NRThe Indigenous Bunong practice agriculture by hand and end up in conflict with Cambodia's lucrative trade in CO2 certificates, losing the forest of whose ownership they have no conception. Now and then, split screen. A visual firework display.
We Are the Fruits of the Forest
2025
Between 1975 and 1979, at least 250,000 Cambodian women were forced into marriages by the Khmer Rouge. Sochan was one of them. At the age of 16, she was forced to marry a soldier who raped her. After 30 years of silence, Sochan decided to bring her case to the international tribunal set up to try former Khmer Rouge leaders.
Red Wedding
2012
5.0After The Missing Picture (Un Certain Regard winner 2013 and Oscar nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2013) and Exile, Rithy Panh continues his personal and spiritual exploration. S21 the Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell analyzed the mechanisms of the crime. Graves Without a Name searches for a path to peace. When a thirteen-year-old child, who lost the greater part of his family under the Khmer rouge, embarks on a search for their graves, whether clay or on spiritual ground, what does he find there? And above all, what is he looking for? Spectral trees? Villages defaced beyond recognition? Witnesses who are reluctant to speak? The ethereal touch of a brother or sister’s body as the night approaches? A cinematic movie that reaches well beyond the story of a country for that which is universal.
Graves Without a Name
2019
5.0After The Missing Picture (Un Certain Regard winner 2013 and Oscar nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2013) and Exile, Rithy Panh continues his personal and spiritual exploration. S21 the Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell analyzed the mechanisms of the crime. Graves Without a Name searches for a path to peace. When a thirteen-year-old child, who lost the greater part of his family under the Khmer rouge, embarks on a search for their graves, whether clay or on spiritual ground, what does he find there? And above all, what is he looking for? Spectral trees? Villages defaced beyond recognition? Witnesses who are reluctant to speak? The ethereal touch of a brother or sister’s body as the night approaches? A cinematic movie that reaches well beyond the story of a country for that which is universal.
Graves Without a Name
2019
7.0A blend of fact and fiction, based on the actual lives of the actors, the film depicts a troupe of actors and dancers struggling to practice their art in the burned-out shell of Cambodia's former national theater, the Preah Suramarit National Theater in Phnom Penh.
The Burnt Theatre
2005
7.0A blend of fact and fiction, based on the actual lives of the actors, the film depicts a troupe of actors and dancers struggling to practice their art in the burned-out shell of Cambodia's former national theater, the Preah Suramarit National Theater in Phnom Penh.
The Burnt Theatre
2005
NRJoker, Kookie and Djumbo are “Khmericans”: Cambodian refugees who grew up in the United States and were deported back to Cambodia after serving a prison sentence.
Khmerica
2025
9.0Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé reveals his passion for cinema, Africa and the world to Cambodian director Rithy Panh.
Cinéastes de notre temps : Souleymane Cissé
1991
In 1999 a fibre-glas wire was installed from Thailand to Vietnam straight trough Cambodia. Rithy Panh shows us the work done in Cambodia to connect Khmer-society to "modern world". Farmers, soldiers and children work for a living there and unearthen skulls and bones -their remains from PolPot-regime you can see. The fear in their mind is portrayed by Rithy Panh in this documentary. As the other work done by Rithy Panh this deals with his people. I like it very much! The movie was awarded 1999 at "Visions du Réel" in Nyon (Switzerland) and at "Cinéma du Réel" in Paris.
The Land of the Wandering Souls
2000
In 1999 a fibre-glas wire was installed from Thailand to Vietnam straight trough Cambodia. Rithy Panh shows us the work done in Cambodia to connect Khmer-society to "modern world". Farmers, soldiers and children work for a living there and unearthen skulls and bones -their remains from PolPot-regime you can see. The fear in their mind is portrayed by Rithy Panh in this documentary. As the other work done by Rithy Panh this deals with his people. I like it very much! The movie was awarded 1999 at "Visions du Réel" in Nyon (Switzerland) and at "Cinéma du Réel" in Paris.
The Land of the Wandering Souls
2000
6.1Based upon documentation of forced confessions made during the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia, this film reconstructs the relationship of a young woman, Hout Bophana, and Ly Sitha before they were tortured in executed in 1977.
Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy
1996
NRKavich Neang’s first film is a short documentary following Sory Chan, a 14-year-old boy who is living in Phnom Penh apart from his family. A student of Cambodian classical music, Sory lives with his mother’s friend after his mother fled a debt she couldn’t afford to pay back. Each evening after class, he carries a scale outside in a popular part of the city and asks people to weigh themselves for a small amount of money. In this urgent film, we witness Sory’s day in class, his nightly routine and a particularly difficult conversation with his mother who he meets on the street.
A Scale Boy
2010
6.2During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.
Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers
2007
6.2During the last half-century, Cambodia has witnessed genocide, decades of war and the collapse of social order. Now, documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh looks at an irreparable tragedy that is less visible, yet no less pervasive: the spiritual death that results when young women are forced into prostitution. Angry and impassioned, PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS presents the searing stories of poor Asian women whose lives were violated and their destinies destroyed when their bodies were turned into items of sexual commerce.
Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers
2007
8.0A film about people who have survived the irradiation of war and recommended to those who believe they are immune to it.
Irradiated
2022
8.0A film about people who have survived the irradiation of war and recommended to those who believe they are immune to it.
Irradiated
2022
8.0After having fled Pol Pot, Rithy Panh, a 15 year old Cambodian finds refuge at the Mairut camp in Thailand, in 1979. Ten years later, now a filmmaker, he returns to the camps to film the daily life of this threatened people. The peoples he meets, eaten away by inactivity, insecutity and the fear of being forgotten, have been waiting for a possible return to Cambodia.
Site 2
1989
8.0After having fled Pol Pot, Rithy Panh, a 15 year old Cambodian finds refuge at the Mairut camp in Thailand, in 1979. Ten years later, now a filmmaker, he returns to the camps to film the daily life of this threatened people. The peoples he meets, eaten away by inactivity, insecutity and the fear of being forgotten, have been waiting for a possible return to Cambodia.
Site 2
1989
When an American plane crashes in the Cambodian jungle, the pilot is taken captive by the Khmer Rouge. They instruct the kids of a village to keep an eye on the prisoner. While the younger kids gradually become friends with the stranger, the older boy called Pang has a different attitude. Since he grew up without parents, he accepted the Khmer rouge as his replacement parents and endears himself to them by betraying villagers. When Pang becomes responsible for watching the prisoner, things become worse for the pilot.
The Catch
2011
When an American plane crashes in the Cambodian jungle, the pilot is taken captive by the Khmer Rouge. They instruct the kids of a village to keep an eye on the prisoner. While the younger kids gradually become friends with the stranger, the older boy called Pang has a different attitude. Since he grew up without parents, he accepted the Khmer rouge as his replacement parents and endears himself to them by betraying villagers. When Pang becomes responsible for watching the prisoner, things become worse for the pilot.
The Catch
2011
NRIn Ratanakiri, a province in the northeast of Cambodia, Khlek, an 11-year-old boy, lives on the rubber plantation where his parents work. Coming from the Kreung ethnic minority, they are tappers.
The Rubber Tappers
2024
Set in the newly-pacified Phnom Penh, this film is about the return to civilian life of Cambodian soldiers.
One Evening After the War
1998
Set in the newly-pacified Phnom Penh, this film is about the return to civilian life of Cambodian soldiers.
One Evening After the War
1998
6.5A poor, rural Cambodian family slowly disintegrates during the cycle of a single rice crop.
Rice People
1994

