SIEM REAP, Cambodia - Hollywood actress-turned-director Angeline Jolie launched her new film portraying the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime on Saturday night amid the ancient temples of Angkor, western Cambodia. For Jolie, 41, it capped a personal and professional love affair with Cambodia that has spanned nearly two decades, since she starred in the fantasy action movie, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, in 2000.
Nestled in the impenetrable darkness of the Angkor complex, surrounded by the phantasmagoric structures of the ancient period, the Netflix film First They Killed My Father was aired to a mostly Khmer audience of about 1,500 people, including Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, government officials and local people. The setting was symbolic of Jolie's long-held fascination with Cambodia and her decision to gear the film toward a local audience. She adopted one of her six children, Maddox Jolie-Pitt, from a Cambodian orphanage in 2002.
