In The Killing Fields, journalist Dith Pran is trying to leave Cambodia.
The 1984 film dramatizes the experiences of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran and American reporter Sydney Schanberg during the Cambodian genocide. After the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in April 1975, Pran was separated from Schanberg and forced to endure imprisonment, starvation, and forced labor before escaping to Thailand.
Haing S. Ngor played Pran, while Sam Waterston portrayed Schanberg. Ngor was not a professional actor before the film; he had personally survived imprisonment under the Khmer Rouge. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the performance.
The title refers to mass-execution sites associated with the genocide, especially Choeung Ek near Phnom Penh. Cambodia is sometimes confused with Vietnam because the story unfolds amid the wider Indochina conflicts, but the film’s central historical catastrophe is Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge rule.