Enemies of the People (2009) Movie Script
Some say that almost 2,000,000 people die
in the Killing Fields.
Nobody understand why so many people were killed
in that time.
I just know that since Pol Pot die,
only this man, Nuon Chea, can tell us
why the killing happen.
My project is to find out why so many people die
in the Killing Fields.
I do this work not just for my father,
my mother and my brother,
I do this for all the people.
First, I remember when I was small,
the American bombing aircraft.
This is not an invasion of Cambodia.
We take this action
for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam.
This is not Vietnam.
We are living in Cambodia, next door.
And then the war was over.
We didn't know who controlled the country at that time.
We just know them as Khmer Krahom,
in English, Khmer Rouge.
There is only two on the top of the Khmer Rouge.
Pol Pot, they call him Brother Number One,
and Nuon Chea, Brother Number Two.
I am Thet Sambath,
senior reporter with the Phnom Penh Post.
And this project, I do in my spare time.
She refuse.
I go to the province every weekend.
I have done like this for 10 years.
My wife she doesn't have money for food today.
Because the money always go for the projects.
So I think the project is very important.
When I was small, I had no father and mother,
so I know about the difficulty for the children.
My work is very dangerous.
I told my wife about when we do a filming,
she is surprised about what we are doing.
And then I just said,
"Oh, we do a documentary about my work."
And then she asked me if something happen to me, if I die,
what she'd do.
What about the children?
She asked me that.
That question make me very surprised and make me very sad.
If I compare my work to the battlefield,
I think I work more hard than in the battlefield, really.
Go to work with Nuon Chea is not easy at all.
Very difficult.
He's very secretive man, very secretive man.
Go one time, doesn't know anything,
go next week, doesn't know anything.
For five months, know nothing.
For one year, nothing.
And two year, nothing.
So it's not easy to do the work like this.
I told him that this is not for journalism,
it is for history.
But I never told him about my family at all.
When they were fighting American,
Pol Pot and Nuon Chea, they were friends with Vietnam.
But they are more extreme and more communist.
No money, no market.
That is the reason that my father dies.
My father, he didn't want to join the Khmer Rouge at all.
He doesn't want, but the problem is,
he has a cow, buffalo, land, house.
All these thing, he doesn't want to lose.
And one time my father, he got up in a meeting in public,
organized by Khmer Rouge cadre.
And then the Khmer Rouge cadre they announce that,
so all the property, like cow, gold, everything,
please send to Angkar.
And then my father, only my father got up in the meeting
and he said,
"Why need to collect property from us to Angkar?
That is belong to us."
They arrest him and then they took him to the rice field.
They kill him not by shooting.
They kill him by thrust him by knife.
They stubbed him many time.
So the Khmer Rouge soldier, they stand around my father
and then the one man that jump and then thrust my father,
and then other men, they come and kick.
My father fall down and then they thrust.
He did not die immediately.
Very, very suffer.
Because my brother, he watched.
He hide in there and then he saw all this,
and he tell my uncle how they killed my father.
I don't want him to feel that I come to revenge him.
He asked me, how is my family?
I told him that they die in 1980.
That's what I said, yeah.
But later I will tell him again, in the near future
about, what is the truth?
I will take my time to talk about this.
The Northwest of Cambodia.
The area where most killing happen.
There are many hundreds of killers here,
but no one know who they are,
because they never admit until today.
Nobody understand why they kill
and who ordered them to kill.
Because the top Khmer Rouge leader always deny
they were killers.
I think only the killer can tel us the truth.
Why they kill the people and who ordered them to kill.
When I got information from a real killer,
I'm too excited.
I could not sleep much.
When I interview Khoun and Suon,
I always think about my father.
They're talking, how to kill people
but I am still smiling to them.
Nobody know I am a victim as well.
Mr. Khoun and Mr. Suon, they have sacrificed a lot
for telling me the truth.
I am very lucky to get this real history
and keep it for the new generation.
I have spent many years to find all these people,
because after the Khmer Rouge collapsed,
these people did not follow Pol Pot anymore.
They just go to live in other village
and different province quietly.
Not joined with Khmer Rouge anymore.
Some people I take a long time.
I take one year, or two year, or three year
just to know them closely that when I go to meet them,
just say hello and talking with their children
or their wives, make a funny,
and then we have a chat a little bit and then I go back.
After I get close, I let them drink wine and enjoy together.
And then they start,
I start talking about the Khmer Rouge regime.
I heard some people, they kill a lot of people,
they kill in that place.
And then that man, he said, "Oh, you want to know?
I know , I also did it."
Some people they answer to me like that.
And then I keep quiet.
I do not ask him anymore.
Next week, I went to see him and then I start talking.
Did he kill the people or not?
And then I say that I know for a long time
about some people who kill.
And I know that you kill the people too,
but I did not ask you.
So I'm sorry to you.
So now I just dare to ask you
because we now we are confidential with each other.
To get the truth, you must talk to the uneducated farmer
who did the killings.
It's hard for foreigner and journalist to talk to them.
But for me, it's no problem
because I am a country person too.
The first time they always deny.
But you must find another way.
Now there is a Khmer Rouge tribunal with the United Nation
and they plan to charge the leader
with international crimes.
When I started this project,
no one thought the Khmer Rouge would ever go to trial.
In Khmer Rouge time Mr. Suon was a militia
in charge of village.
Mr. Khoun, he was higher than Mr. Suon
in charge of many people.
Both of them take me to see their boss.
Even I was close with him for more than three year,
Nuon Chea, he never told me anything,
but I feel confident that he would tell me at the end.
I go step-by-step and then finally he told me one day,
"Sambath, I believe you, I trust you.
I tell you the truth."
This is the first time that Nuon Chea admits
about the killing.
When Mr. Nuon Chea told me about all these problem,
and then I have everything in my hand.
Even today, Nuon Chea does not trust Vietnamese.
That's why during the Khmer Rouge time,
Poi Pot and Nuon Chea decide to get close to China.
But others in the Khmer Rouge party,
they want to follow Vietnamese.
This is the main problem in the Khmer Rouge.
After my father was killed, my mother was forced to marry
with a Khmer Rouge militia,
and then she cry, she cry a lot.
The militia man warned that if she refused
the whole, our family would be killed.
I remember that she just pat my head.
And all my brother and sister, all cry about this.
Because our father just die
and was killed by the Khmer Rouge.
And then the Khmer Rouge militia forced her to marry
to make us very sad among family.
Even my grandmother, all very sad.
And then she, pregnant, give birth.
And then she has many blood.
Before she die, she call me and call my sister.
And she just told us that, please take care of yourselves.
In the Khmer Rouge time I was allowed to cut the grass
along the road and later I was moved from the village
to very far area, 15 to 20 kilometer to make a dam.
It's very difficult to work like that
because, eat only porridge.
I was so hungry every day
and then one day I decide to leave.
And then, evening time, I run to my grandfather.
He secretly cook the rice and fish to eat.
Early morning, we go back.
And later my grandfather told us
that please don't come again,
otherwise you would be beaten or you would be killed.
Some night I dream and I could not sleep.
My father was killed and I had no father, I had no mother,
I had no brother to care of me.
When I see parent treat their children well,
it make me very sad.
I run away and escape from them.
Cambodia has made a symbolic start
to the trials of its former leaders.
Prosecutors are expected to begin work to decide
which of the Khmer Rouge leaders, many of whom are now
in their 80s, will face trial.
Nuon Chea who was the top deputy leader of Pol Pot
said he would gladly take part.
I have been with Mr. Nuon Chea since 2001.
It's not easy to make a communist man like Nuon chea
say everything to us.
I try to get close to him
to make him confident to say the truth.
Mr. Nuon Chea told me that he has investigate
who I am for many years.
I has to keep all the cassette
about Nuon Chea interview very secretly
because I'm worried that somebody
can confiscate all my tape.
This, very important for the history,
the facts from the top Khmer Rouge leader
that we call Brother Number Two, Nuon chea.
This is the first time a top Khmer Rouge leader
admits the killing like this.
Pol Pot, he never said this kind of stuff.
I try to imagine Pol Pot and Nuon Chea
sitting and talking in a room.
Pol Pot and Nuon chea thought that they could do
more than Mao Zedong.
They want to be more communist than China.
They had no experience, how to govern a country.
This is their big mistake.
So the people are unhappy and some try to topple Pol Pot.
Pol Pot and Nuon Chea react by smashing these people.
Their big mistake is the decision to kill.
I want to know if Noun Chea felt in his heart,
he did wrong or not.
He asked me, how about my family members, about my parent,
and I just told him that, "Oh, they are fine.
They are working in the co-operative."
"So how are they now?"
I just said, "Oh, they die.
They die during 1980s."
I do not tell him that they die during 1975, '79,
because I don't want him to feel that I do revenge to him.
Even now, I want to tell him,
but I feel that it's not the right time for me
to tell him all this problem.
These chilling uncensored images
of Saddam Hussein's final moments are at the center
of an awkward Iraqi government investigation, into itself,
and all that went wrong with the execution.
The government has said that it detained
two security guards, it says, could be responsible
for filming and distributing these images.
I had the idea to take Mr. Suon and Mr. Khoun
to see Nuon Chea.
I want the top leader and the killer
like Mr. Suon and Khoun to meet
and ask Nuon chea why they are killing the people.
My brother was arrested
during the purge by Pol Pot.
He was not a Khmer Rouge, no,
but he was writing a document for the Khmer Rouge cadre.
He was mistakenly arrested
because during the purge they just arrest anyone.
I saw my brother ride a bicycle,
and then he saw me, he call me.
He call me, Sambath.
And then I wait, and he call me, Sambath,
and then I ran to him.
And then he ask me how I am.
And then he just took his hand, touched on my hair
and for about 10 minutes.
And then he said goodbye, he need to go to work.
But before he left, I ask him,
"Brother, can you give me one fighting cock?"
And then he said, "Yes."
I asked him, "When?"
He said, "Tomorrow."
And then, "You wait me here."
And then tomorrow I come to stand on the road.
I think I stand like this, yeah.
I just standing like this waiting to that direction.
Just waiting, he ride a bicycle coming.
And then I waiting, almost the whole day,
since the morning until evening.
I am waiting and then he coming.
I saw him coming by bicycle.
And then I ask him, "Where is the fighting cock?"
And then he said, "Oh, I forgot, Sambath."
And then I felt disappointment with my brother.
And I felt that, "Oh, my brother did not love me.
That's why he did not bring a fighting cock for me."
His face look very sad.
I don't know what he was thinking about.
Very sad, he did not smile at me, but he look,
his face signaled he thought a lot.
But I don't know what he was thinking about,
because I just focus about my fighting cocks.
And then I got information that he was killed.
When I come here, it make me very sad.
Too sad because it's...
When I come here, it remind me about my brother,
and my mother, and my father,
that were treated bad by the Khmer Rouge regime.
My brother and my sister,
they did not understand what was happening,
and among us, we try not to say about our family.
We never talk about our relative, my brother, my sister,
about my mother die during Khmer Rouge,
my brother was killed and my father was killed.
We never talk.
Since the Khmer Rouge took power,
it make my family destroy, kill.
We are living separately.
Now I think that it's the right time
to tell Nuon Chea about my family.
If I did not tell him right now and the court is coming,
if he was arrest
and I did not have a chance to tell him this,
I feel, would be a big mistake for me.
When I told him about my brother, and my mother,
and my father in front of him, I also feel very, very sad.
And he also, very sad too, almost could not talk
when he heard about my family like that.
Many year, we always talk very friendly to each other.
It like nothing happened to my family.
He could not bring my father, my brother,
and my mother back to life.
He could not talk much about that.
I understand about that.
After I told him about my family, I felt better.
After the Vietnamese invade, killing is finished.
Fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese continue
for more than 10 years.
I went to live in a refugee camp
along the border with Thailand.
One of the architects of the infamous Khmer Rouge
is now under arrest.
The charged crimes against humanity, Nuon Chea,
who is now 82 helped Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot-
The most senior surviving member
of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has been charged
with war crimes and crimes against humanity
When he was taken into the aircraft,
that made me very sad.
No to say he's a good man,
but because we had used to work together, almost 10 year.
I am sad, yeah.
I have bought some land along the border.
I plan to plant some fruit trees, some potato and some corn.
Now the project is finished.
I plan to stop and take a rest.
I need to stop researching the past.
I would like to spend more time
with my family, my children, my wife,
and concentrate on farming the land.
in the Killing Fields.
Nobody understand why so many people were killed
in that time.
I just know that since Pol Pot die,
only this man, Nuon Chea, can tell us
why the killing happen.
My project is to find out why so many people die
in the Killing Fields.
I do this work not just for my father,
my mother and my brother,
I do this for all the people.
First, I remember when I was small,
the American bombing aircraft.
This is not an invasion of Cambodia.
We take this action
for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam.
This is not Vietnam.
We are living in Cambodia, next door.
And then the war was over.
We didn't know who controlled the country at that time.
We just know them as Khmer Krahom,
in English, Khmer Rouge.
There is only two on the top of the Khmer Rouge.
Pol Pot, they call him Brother Number One,
and Nuon Chea, Brother Number Two.
I am Thet Sambath,
senior reporter with the Phnom Penh Post.
And this project, I do in my spare time.
She refuse.
I go to the province every weekend.
I have done like this for 10 years.
My wife she doesn't have money for food today.
Because the money always go for the projects.
So I think the project is very important.
When I was small, I had no father and mother,
so I know about the difficulty for the children.
My work is very dangerous.
I told my wife about when we do a filming,
she is surprised about what we are doing.
And then I just said,
"Oh, we do a documentary about my work."
And then she asked me if something happen to me, if I die,
what she'd do.
What about the children?
She asked me that.
That question make me very surprised and make me very sad.
If I compare my work to the battlefield,
I think I work more hard than in the battlefield, really.
Go to work with Nuon Chea is not easy at all.
Very difficult.
He's very secretive man, very secretive man.
Go one time, doesn't know anything,
go next week, doesn't know anything.
For five months, know nothing.
For one year, nothing.
And two year, nothing.
So it's not easy to do the work like this.
I told him that this is not for journalism,
it is for history.
But I never told him about my family at all.
When they were fighting American,
Pol Pot and Nuon Chea, they were friends with Vietnam.
But they are more extreme and more communist.
No money, no market.
That is the reason that my father dies.
My father, he didn't want to join the Khmer Rouge at all.
He doesn't want, but the problem is,
he has a cow, buffalo, land, house.
All these thing, he doesn't want to lose.
And one time my father, he got up in a meeting in public,
organized by Khmer Rouge cadre.
And then the Khmer Rouge cadre they announce that,
so all the property, like cow, gold, everything,
please send to Angkar.
And then my father, only my father got up in the meeting
and he said,
"Why need to collect property from us to Angkar?
That is belong to us."
They arrest him and then they took him to the rice field.
They kill him not by shooting.
They kill him by thrust him by knife.
They stubbed him many time.
So the Khmer Rouge soldier, they stand around my father
and then the one man that jump and then thrust my father,
and then other men, they come and kick.
My father fall down and then they thrust.
He did not die immediately.
Very, very suffer.
Because my brother, he watched.
He hide in there and then he saw all this,
and he tell my uncle how they killed my father.
I don't want him to feel that I come to revenge him.
He asked me, how is my family?
I told him that they die in 1980.
That's what I said, yeah.
But later I will tell him again, in the near future
about, what is the truth?
I will take my time to talk about this.
The Northwest of Cambodia.
The area where most killing happen.
There are many hundreds of killers here,
but no one know who they are,
because they never admit until today.
Nobody understand why they kill
and who ordered them to kill.
Because the top Khmer Rouge leader always deny
they were killers.
I think only the killer can tel us the truth.
Why they kill the people and who ordered them to kill.
When I got information from a real killer,
I'm too excited.
I could not sleep much.
When I interview Khoun and Suon,
I always think about my father.
They're talking, how to kill people
but I am still smiling to them.
Nobody know I am a victim as well.
Mr. Khoun and Mr. Suon, they have sacrificed a lot
for telling me the truth.
I am very lucky to get this real history
and keep it for the new generation.
I have spent many years to find all these people,
because after the Khmer Rouge collapsed,
these people did not follow Pol Pot anymore.
They just go to live in other village
and different province quietly.
Not joined with Khmer Rouge anymore.
Some people I take a long time.
I take one year, or two year, or three year
just to know them closely that when I go to meet them,
just say hello and talking with their children
or their wives, make a funny,
and then we have a chat a little bit and then I go back.
After I get close, I let them drink wine and enjoy together.
And then they start,
I start talking about the Khmer Rouge regime.
I heard some people, they kill a lot of people,
they kill in that place.
And then that man, he said, "Oh, you want to know?
I know , I also did it."
Some people they answer to me like that.
And then I keep quiet.
I do not ask him anymore.
Next week, I went to see him and then I start talking.
Did he kill the people or not?
And then I say that I know for a long time
about some people who kill.
And I know that you kill the people too,
but I did not ask you.
So I'm sorry to you.
So now I just dare to ask you
because we now we are confidential with each other.
To get the truth, you must talk to the uneducated farmer
who did the killings.
It's hard for foreigner and journalist to talk to them.
But for me, it's no problem
because I am a country person too.
The first time they always deny.
But you must find another way.
Now there is a Khmer Rouge tribunal with the United Nation
and they plan to charge the leader
with international crimes.
When I started this project,
no one thought the Khmer Rouge would ever go to trial.
In Khmer Rouge time Mr. Suon was a militia
in charge of village.
Mr. Khoun, he was higher than Mr. Suon
in charge of many people.
Both of them take me to see their boss.
Even I was close with him for more than three year,
Nuon Chea, he never told me anything,
but I feel confident that he would tell me at the end.
I go step-by-step and then finally he told me one day,
"Sambath, I believe you, I trust you.
I tell you the truth."
This is the first time that Nuon Chea admits
about the killing.
When Mr. Nuon Chea told me about all these problem,
and then I have everything in my hand.
Even today, Nuon Chea does not trust Vietnamese.
That's why during the Khmer Rouge time,
Poi Pot and Nuon Chea decide to get close to China.
But others in the Khmer Rouge party,
they want to follow Vietnamese.
This is the main problem in the Khmer Rouge.
After my father was killed, my mother was forced to marry
with a Khmer Rouge militia,
and then she cry, she cry a lot.
The militia man warned that if she refused
the whole, our family would be killed.
I remember that she just pat my head.
And all my brother and sister, all cry about this.
Because our father just die
and was killed by the Khmer Rouge.
And then the Khmer Rouge militia forced her to marry
to make us very sad among family.
Even my grandmother, all very sad.
And then she, pregnant, give birth.
And then she has many blood.
Before she die, she call me and call my sister.
And she just told us that, please take care of yourselves.
In the Khmer Rouge time I was allowed to cut the grass
along the road and later I was moved from the village
to very far area, 15 to 20 kilometer to make a dam.
It's very difficult to work like that
because, eat only porridge.
I was so hungry every day
and then one day I decide to leave.
And then, evening time, I run to my grandfather.
He secretly cook the rice and fish to eat.
Early morning, we go back.
And later my grandfather told us
that please don't come again,
otherwise you would be beaten or you would be killed.
Some night I dream and I could not sleep.
My father was killed and I had no father, I had no mother,
I had no brother to care of me.
When I see parent treat their children well,
it make me very sad.
I run away and escape from them.
Cambodia has made a symbolic start
to the trials of its former leaders.
Prosecutors are expected to begin work to decide
which of the Khmer Rouge leaders, many of whom are now
in their 80s, will face trial.
Nuon Chea who was the top deputy leader of Pol Pot
said he would gladly take part.
I have been with Mr. Nuon Chea since 2001.
It's not easy to make a communist man like Nuon chea
say everything to us.
I try to get close to him
to make him confident to say the truth.
Mr. Nuon Chea told me that he has investigate
who I am for many years.
I has to keep all the cassette
about Nuon Chea interview very secretly
because I'm worried that somebody
can confiscate all my tape.
This, very important for the history,
the facts from the top Khmer Rouge leader
that we call Brother Number Two, Nuon chea.
This is the first time a top Khmer Rouge leader
admits the killing like this.
Pol Pot, he never said this kind of stuff.
I try to imagine Pol Pot and Nuon Chea
sitting and talking in a room.
Pol Pot and Nuon chea thought that they could do
more than Mao Zedong.
They want to be more communist than China.
They had no experience, how to govern a country.
This is their big mistake.
So the people are unhappy and some try to topple Pol Pot.
Pol Pot and Nuon Chea react by smashing these people.
Their big mistake is the decision to kill.
I want to know if Noun Chea felt in his heart,
he did wrong or not.
He asked me, how about my family members, about my parent,
and I just told him that, "Oh, they are fine.
They are working in the co-operative."
"So how are they now?"
I just said, "Oh, they die.
They die during 1980s."
I do not tell him that they die during 1975, '79,
because I don't want him to feel that I do revenge to him.
Even now, I want to tell him,
but I feel that it's not the right time for me
to tell him all this problem.
These chilling uncensored images
of Saddam Hussein's final moments are at the center
of an awkward Iraqi government investigation, into itself,
and all that went wrong with the execution.
The government has said that it detained
two security guards, it says, could be responsible
for filming and distributing these images.
I had the idea to take Mr. Suon and Mr. Khoun
to see Nuon Chea.
I want the top leader and the killer
like Mr. Suon and Khoun to meet
and ask Nuon chea why they are killing the people.
My brother was arrested
during the purge by Pol Pot.
He was not a Khmer Rouge, no,
but he was writing a document for the Khmer Rouge cadre.
He was mistakenly arrested
because during the purge they just arrest anyone.
I saw my brother ride a bicycle,
and then he saw me, he call me.
He call me, Sambath.
And then I wait, and he call me, Sambath,
and then I ran to him.
And then he ask me how I am.
And then he just took his hand, touched on my hair
and for about 10 minutes.
And then he said goodbye, he need to go to work.
But before he left, I ask him,
"Brother, can you give me one fighting cock?"
And then he said, "Yes."
I asked him, "When?"
He said, "Tomorrow."
And then, "You wait me here."
And then tomorrow I come to stand on the road.
I think I stand like this, yeah.
I just standing like this waiting to that direction.
Just waiting, he ride a bicycle coming.
And then I waiting, almost the whole day,
since the morning until evening.
I am waiting and then he coming.
I saw him coming by bicycle.
And then I ask him, "Where is the fighting cock?"
And then he said, "Oh, I forgot, Sambath."
And then I felt disappointment with my brother.
And I felt that, "Oh, my brother did not love me.
That's why he did not bring a fighting cock for me."
His face look very sad.
I don't know what he was thinking about.
Very sad, he did not smile at me, but he look,
his face signaled he thought a lot.
But I don't know what he was thinking about,
because I just focus about my fighting cocks.
And then I got information that he was killed.
When I come here, it make me very sad.
Too sad because it's...
When I come here, it remind me about my brother,
and my mother, and my father,
that were treated bad by the Khmer Rouge regime.
My brother and my sister,
they did not understand what was happening,
and among us, we try not to say about our family.
We never talk about our relative, my brother, my sister,
about my mother die during Khmer Rouge,
my brother was killed and my father was killed.
We never talk.
Since the Khmer Rouge took power,
it make my family destroy, kill.
We are living separately.
Now I think that it's the right time
to tell Nuon Chea about my family.
If I did not tell him right now and the court is coming,
if he was arrest
and I did not have a chance to tell him this,
I feel, would be a big mistake for me.
When I told him about my brother, and my mother,
and my father in front of him, I also feel very, very sad.
And he also, very sad too, almost could not talk
when he heard about my family like that.
Many year, we always talk very friendly to each other.
It like nothing happened to my family.
He could not bring my father, my brother,
and my mother back to life.
He could not talk much about that.
I understand about that.
After I told him about my family, I felt better.
After the Vietnamese invade, killing is finished.
Fighting between Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese continue
for more than 10 years.
I went to live in a refugee camp
along the border with Thailand.
One of the architects of the infamous Khmer Rouge
is now under arrest.
The charged crimes against humanity, Nuon Chea,
who is now 82 helped Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot-
The most senior surviving member
of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia has been charged
with war crimes and crimes against humanity
When he was taken into the aircraft,
that made me very sad.
No to say he's a good man,
but because we had used to work together, almost 10 year.
I am sad, yeah.
I have bought some land along the border.
I plan to plant some fruit trees, some potato and some corn.
Now the project is finished.
I plan to stop and take a rest.
I need to stop researching the past.
I would like to spend more time
with my family, my children, my wife,
and concentrate on farming the land.