France Is Our Mother Country

Echoes of dance music resound, accompanying images of an overgrown ruin. Then we see silent black-and-white footage of dancing French people from the time of Cambodia’s occupation by France (1863-1953) and incorporation into the colonial empire of Indochina. Rithy Panh, who was nominated for an Oscar for , allows history’s voiceless to speak in this disturbing alternative history. He critically examines the French motherland’s “purely fraternal intentions” by re-editing silent propaganda films and their title cards. is a combined history lesson and cinematic collage on representation. A title card that reads “dedication to the mother country” is juxtaposed with images of Cambodian forced laborers flanked by their armed, white overseers. Unsettling sounds accompany images of semi-naked Cambodian women and tied-up livestock. In this way Panh illustrates how a land, culture and society were destroyed in the name of liberty, equality, fraternity and progress. When idyllic colonial life finally ends in a bloody war of independence, the original titles are replaced by Panh’s: “Open your eyes, young sons of France.” Then he returns to the beautiful ruins, where the jungle has started to recover.