| Director | Roland Joffé |
|---|---|
| Genre | biographical film, drama film |
| Runtime | 139 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | $14.4 million |
| Box office | $34.7 million |
In 1973, New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg arrives in Phnom Penh to cover the civil war between the Cambodian national army and the communist Khmer Rouge. Schanberg is joined by photographer Al Rockoff and Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist and interpreter. Pran and Schanberg travel to Neak Leung to investigate an alleged bombing by an American B-52. The pair are detained there trying to photograph the execution of two Khmer Rouge operatives. Schanberg is furious when the international press corps arrives with the U.S. Army.
Two years later, the Phnom Penh embassies are evacuated in anticipation of the Khmer Rouge's arrival. Schanberg helps evacuate Pran's family, but Pran stays behind to help. The Khmer Rouge move into the capital, ostensibly in peace, but Schanberg and Rockoff are arrested as the communists parade through the city and taken to an alley for execution. Pran, unharmed because he is a Cambodian civilian, negotiates the release of his friends and they flee to the French embassy where the Khmer Rouge demands all Cambodian citizens. The fearful ambassador orders the Cambodian national to leave. Rockoff and fellow photographer Jon Swain try to forge a British passport, but lack adequate photographic fixer and the forgery is detected. Pran is turned over to the Khmer Rouge who have installed a totalitarian regime.
Several months after returning to New York City, Schanberg launches a personal campaign to locate Pran; he writes letters to several charities and maintains close contact with Pran's family in San Francisco. In Cambodia, Pran has become a forced labourer under the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" policy, a return to the agrarian ways of the past. Pran is also forced to attend propagandist classes where many undergo re-education. As intellectuals are made to disappear, Pran feigns simple-mindedness. Eventually, he escapes and stumbles upon one of the Pol Pot regime's Killing Fields before he is found unconscious on the riverside and taken in by a different cadre of Khmer Rouge. In 1976, Schanberg receives a prestigious award for his coverage of the Cambodian conflict and tells the audience that half the recognition belongs to Pran.
Rockoff accuses Schanberg of not doing enough to locate Pran, suggesting he callously used him to win the award. Schanberg reluctantly admits Pran stayed because of what Schanberg wanted. Pran lives in a Khmer Rouge-held village led by a man named Phat, doing household chores and tending to Phat's young son. Phat probes Pran's understanding of French and English, but Pran continues to successfully hide his education, claiming to have been a taxi driver before the revolution. When Phat catches Pran listening to English language radio, he confides in Pran his distrust of the Khmer Rouge leadership, and asks him to take ward of his son in the event he is killed.
During the Khmer Rouge's border war with Vietnam, Pran discovers Phat's son has American money and a map leading to safety. Phat is killed trying to stop younger Khmer Rouge officers from killing several of his comrades. In the confusion, Pran escapes into the jungle with four of Phat's comrades and his son. Three of the comrades split from the group and Pran continues following the map with the fourth man until the latter activates a land mine while holding the boy, killing them both. Pran continues alone and encounters a Red Cross refugee camp near the border with Thailand. Schanberg, informed Pran is alive, reunites with Pran at the Red Cross camp. Pran assures Schanberg of his forgiveness and the two embrace.