Angelina Jolie has given fans the first glimpse of her upcoming directorial movie, First They Killed My Father. The Netflix drama, which is based on Cambodian human rights activist Loung Ung's 2000 memoir of the same name, was directed by the 41-year-old Oscar-winning actress. "The heart of it is Loung's story," says Angelina in the preview. "It's the story of a war through the eyes of a child, but it is also the story of a country." The story recounts Loung's experiences and struggles in Cambodia under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouges, the Cambodian communist party, in the late '70s.
The Hollywood star, who is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, can be seen on the set where she has gathered hundreds of survivors and their children to recreate their stories. "It's the first time there's something of this size about this war in this country," the actress explained. "I feel like nobody is here for themselves, and anybody who's here to do any job is here to put something forward and help their country speak."
Find out more about Angelina's humanitarian work
"We set the stage and we explain, like we did with this very difficult scene where we had to capture the Khmer Rouge and beat him," she continued. "We found people who had either themselves suffered or a new suffering and they came with their own story and their own feelings, their own desire, and we gave them parameters, but we let them do it."
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The project, which has been in the pipeline for several years, was influenced by Angelina's 15-year-old son Maddox, who convinced her to make the film. "He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings," Angelina recently told The Guardian. First They Killed My Father will premiere in Siem Reap, Cambodia on February 18 before it will be released globally on Netflix later this year.