It is very important to engage and understand stories of hardship from history. Understanding these stories enables us to cope with difficult or tragic situations and to pass wisdom to our children. These stories may inspire us for hope and belief, and to not take our freedom for granted. We are living in a time where narcissism and selfishness seem to be worshipped, and unfortunately world history may be ignored or forgotten simply because it may have happened in another country other than your own. We as humans can learn from past mistakes, acts of violence leading nowhere, and possibly not only to understand experiences form others, but to also to try to help those affected through awareness and other efforts, always with respect, dignity
They wanted to form an anti-modern, anti-Western ideal of a restructured “classless agrarian society'', a radical form of agrarian communism where the whole population had to work in collective farms or forced labor projects. The Khmer Rouge marginalization killed many innocent people and took civilians hostage to work camps. “First They Killed My Father” is a film is in the perspective of a 5-year-old girl named Loung Ung. This film brings attention to the importance of remembering the millions of civilians as a symbol who died or suffered during the control of communist Cambodia and expresses the hardships that citizens of the Republic of Cambodia faced. Ung and her family were used to living a comfortable, unmonitored lifestyle, but at the work camps the Ung family went into a culture shock, they had to be obedient to the Khmer Rouge and work manual labor on the fields. Before the attack in Phnom Penh, Ung ate well, but after leaving home her appetite changed, and she brought herself to appreciate eating a snake cooked in fire. Additionally, war challenges families to make tough decisions. At the age of seven, Ung and her family had no choice but to separate to reduce the risk of her father’s, privileged job position of a government official from being discovered. Ung and her siblings had to go to different work camps and pretend to be an orphan. Since Ung was so smart
They lost their lives due to starvation, execution, disease, and overwork. The war in Cambodia caused massive devastation. People lost friends and families. Those that did survived often had to face major psychological problems. The people of Cambodia were traumatized by the effects and ethnocentrism of the Khmer Rouge subculture. I really enjoyed watching this film because of its truth. When you watch “First They Killed My Father” you become aware of what innocent people in Cambodia went through. I feel it opens our eyes to see how in the modern world, there are no extremes of human rights violation. People have their rights and freedoms, so they can do anything they want without use of force. Racism, political beliefs, religion all divide us. We need to accept people for who they are and not make judgements. The world demands that we learn from past mistakes so we don’t fall further into a hole of corruption, greed, and abused power. As a country, we need to stand up for unjust acts. The most important lessons to learn are how to treat people the way they deserve to be treated, how to stay courageous, and how to stand together and protect others against torture and discrimination. Moreover, the young generation does not have an idea of what it is like to have their human rights violated. They do not have an idea of how it feels like watching a close member of the family dying or being taken away to become a slave. I