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
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
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.
griminformationalunsettlingbleaksoberingurgentdirectdisturbing
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)
More like this
Year Zero (1936)
Vietnam: The Last Battle (1995)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (2003)
The War You Don't See (2010)
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq (2000)
Enemies of the People (2009)
Apartheid Did Not Die (1998)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.