Claymation film recounts legacy of Khmer Rouge

Claymation characters tell the story of growing up under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Whanganui Film Society's Monday night screening is The Missing Picture (L'image manquante) from Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh.

"This will be one of the most interesting films of the season, in my opinion," says film society president Helen Marie O'Connell.

"It's both a documentary and a personal memoir which uses claymation in contrast with original propaganda footage to recount Panh's childhood growing up under the Khmer Rouge."

The Missing Picture was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Academy Awards and won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2013.

"The audacity of The Missing Picture - a brilliant documentary about a child who held on to life in Cambodia's killing fields - is equalled only by its soulfulness.

"On April 17, 1975, the day the Khmer Rouge seized the capital, Phnom Penh, the 13-year-old Rithy Panh, his family and millions more were driven from that city and other towns and villages and straight into hell.

"Four years later, many of his relatives, including his father, mother, sisters and a niece and nephew were dead; decades later, Mr Panh, now a filmmaker, has told his story in a movie in which the act of remembrance serves as a form of resistance," wrote Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.

Film Society half-year memberships are available to buy online at whanganuifilmsociety.org.nz at $45 or $40 discounted (for students, GoldCard holders and Community Service Card holders). Memberships can also be bought before screenings.

The Missing Picture screens at the Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, Watt St, on Monday, October 30 at 7pm.