Histoire manquante

Scritto il 15 Maggio 2014

It is not easy to tell what people tried to erase. But what you can not see, you can imagine it. I think that the Khmer Rouge dictatorship in Cambodia is one of the most atrocious footnote of history and one of the less known of the story of mankind. This winter I was traveling to Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos and Thailand). There are many stories that we (in the West) ignore even if we (Westerners) are the direct or indirect causes. From the Vietnam War to the bombing of Laos. Stories about which we talk little but which everyone should know. Stories that are not shared on social networks. And of which few traces remain. In January I was in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and, in order to have a real idea of what happened between 1975 and 1979, I visited some of the most important places of the Khmer Rouge regime. I did not see photographs or video. But drawings and paintings made by those people who survived the slaughter and wanted to tell the world the atrocities that they had lived so that can not be forgotten. In Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, a whole generation of men and women has disappeared, millions of people have been killed by the Red Army led by Pol Pot. As Adorno put it, poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. That might be true but on the other hand, sometimes, poetry is what it takes to ensure that Auschwitz won’t be forgotten. This year has been released a movie about that terrible footnote of history. It’s not made by video and photographs, but through imagination and poetry. It’s called “L’image manquante” and this is the trailer: