57 Quotes by Rithy Panh

Clay is a very interesting and fundamental material: it's earth, it's water, and - with fire - it takes on form and life.

The most beautiful thing in Cambodia isn't the country - it's the Cambodian people.

To me, form is not something that you can plan beforehand, especially for a documentary. You can't write it or sketch it. It requires a confrontation with reality, with history, with ethics and morals. After identifying good content, you have to find the right form to express that content.

Sometimes if you can tell one personal story with a lot of sincerity, it can become a universal story.

We need a peaceful, modern Cambodia. We need to achieve that. It's not easy.

In all of my films, there is a desire to testify, to interrogate the past.

I didn't survive because I was stronger than others. I survived because my family and friends helped me to survive. They took my place. My job is to give them back their dignity, tell their story, and say their names.

The Khmer Rouge tried to delete everything. They tried to erase our past, our personality, our land, our sentiment. What we tried to do in 'The Missing Picture' was to reconstruct our identity, to bring it back to the people through cinema.

Cambodia is not only a country of war, but also a country of culture. It's in our DNA.