The Missing Picture
Dir: Rithy Panh
2013
*****
Director Rithy Panh begins the film by explaining that between 1975 and 1979, no pictures that can prove mass murder emerged from Cambodia during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and that while one picture can never prove mass murder, it can go some way in raising questions. His The Missing Picture is the reconstruction, the film footage, the missing picture that never was, using stop animation as his median of choice. Each model is hand carved by himself and must have been a painstaking task. His narration explaining his experience and the questions he asked than and has done since is nothing short of astonishing. This is the missing document, the missing picture from the history book and what the gap in the archives should contain. It's a history lesson worth listening to and a creative experiment to be congratulated.