AllMovie

Between 1975 and 1979, Pol Pot ruled Cambodia and under his regime, known as the Khmer Rouge, over three million people were executed in a genocide prompted by a desire to wipe out undesirable elements in society. 12,000 of those people were killed at the S-21 prison, which Kaing Guek Eav oversaw as Cambodia's Head of Special Security; the former school teacher converted an unused high school into a detention facility where supposed enemies were tortured, interrogated and frequently put to death. Filmmaker Rithy Panh, who was captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 but escaped to safety in Thailand, previously examined the atrocities committed under Pol Pot in the documentary S-21, The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine; now, in Duch, Master Of The Forges Of Hell, Kaing Guek Eav -- nicknamed Duch -- is interviewed at length about what took place at S-21, with his own memories and justifications set against hard evidence of the crimes against humanity that took place on his watch. Duch, Master Of The Forges Of Hell received its world premiere as a special presentation at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.