Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (1979)

Directed by

David Munro

Genre

documentary film, documentary television film

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

50 min

Rating

7.8 of 10 from 8 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

John Pilger reports on the devastating aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The documentary examines the US bombing during the Vietnam War and the genocide that followed.

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What happens

Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia is a 1979 British television documentary film written and presented by the Australian journalist John Pilger, which was produced and directed by David Munro for the ITV network by Associated Television (ATV). First broadcast on 30 October 1979, the filmmakers had entered Cambodia in the wake of the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime. The film recounts the bombing of Cambodia by the United States in the 1970s, a chapter of the Vietnam War kept secret from the American population, the subsequent brutality and Cambodian genocide perpetrated by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge militia after their take over of the country, the poverty and suffering of the people, and the limited aid since given by the West. Pilger's first report on Cambodia was published in a special issue of the Daily Mirror. Following the programme, some £45 million (equivalent to £222 million in 2025) was raised, unsolicited, in mostly small donations, including almost £4 million raised by schoolchildren in the UK. This funded the first substantial relief for Cambodia, including the shipment of life-saving medicines such as penicillin, and clothing to replace the black uniforms people had been forced to wear. According to Brian Walker, director of Oxfam, "a solidarity and compassion surged across our nation" from the broadcast of Year Zero. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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