Who Killed Chea Vichea? Banned In Cambodia

via Khmer NZ News Media

Published: Jun 8, 2010

by Staff

Cambodian Leaders Ban Trade Union Hero's Murder Documentary

Moviemaker Bradley Cox's hard-hitting film about the 2004 assassination of union leader Chea Vichea has been banned in Cambodia after government forces shut down screenings of the movie on international Labour Day last month (May10).

Who Killed Chea Vichea? had its European premiere at the Cannes Independent Film Festival last month (May10) and was recently named one of Amnesty International's Top 10 Movies That Matter.

But the film won't be shown in Vichea's native Cambodia.

Trade union leaders attempted to hold the film's Cambodian premiere at the very location where Vichea was murdered, but riot police raided the site and seized footage.

Cambodian leader Prime Minister Hun Sen has since declared the provocative film an illegal import, and insists all screenings will be prevented.

Director Cox spent much of the past decade piecing the movie together and he is currently receiving treatment for a gunshot wound in Bangkok, where he investigated Vichea's murder.

Cox's documentary reconstructs a police plot that framed two innocent men who were sentenced to 20 years each. Several of the witnesses who appear in the film have fled the country or gone into hiding for safety reasons. The film has led to the re-opening of the murder case and the Supreme Court provisionally released the two men wrongly accused of Vichea's murder last year (09). (c) WENN