Angelina Jolie has offered a behind-the-scenes look at her upcoming Netflix drama about the Cambodian genocide.
The Oscar-winning actress is the director of First They Killed My Father, a film based on the autobiography of Cambodian human rights activist Loung Ung.
The book describes the suffering caused by the Khmer Rouge communist party in the 1970s, when more than two million people including Loung’s parents and two sisters died.
A preview of the Netflix drama opens with the words: “Between 1975 – 1979 Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population.”
Angelina then says: “The heart of it is Loung’s story, it’s the story of a war through the eyes of a child, but it is also the story of a country.
“It’s the first time there’s something on this size about this war in this country.
“I feel like nobody is here for themselves and everybody here to do any job is here to put something forward and help their country speak.”
Angelina, who filmed Tomb Raider in Cambodia, adopted her first child, Maddox, from an orphanage in the country in 2002.
She recently credited Maddox with convincing her to make the film, telling the Guardian: “He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings.”
First They Killed My Father will be released on Netflix later this year.
