Amnesty branch relaunches with film screening

Amnesty Shetland will be launching its contribution to the Amnesty Campaign Against Torture with a screening of an unusual documentary at Shetland Museum.

On Thursday 26th June, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture The Missing Picture, made by Cambodian director Rith Panh, will be shown.

It is a reconstruction of his memories of growing up in revolutionary Cambodia in the 1970s. He lost his immediate family in what became known as The Killing Fields, as well as many of his friends and neighbours to execution, torture and starvation.

Panh, still struggling to come to terms with his sense of grief, outrage and loss, tells the story through the use of carved clay figures and archival film shot by the Khmer Rouge.

The carved figures seem to offer him a way of telling his story in such a way that the pain of its re-telling can be managed. The result is a haunting, evocative and emotionally searing story not just of one man’s still unsupportable loss, but of the suffering of a whole nation.

The film carries a 12A certificate and was nominated for the best foreign language award at this year’s Oscars.

Shetland Amnesty chairman Alex Wright said: “The screening of this film coincides with Amnesty International’s recent launch of its Campaign Against Torture.

“While many states have national anti-torture laws, torture is flourishing because governments are ignoring the law and the commitments they have made to stop this barbaric practice.

“Over the last five years, Amnesty has reported on torture in at least three quarters of the world – 141 countries, from every region.

“We in the Shetland Amnesty Group intend to get behind this campaign vigorously – and screening The Missing Picture is where we will start. We hope that as many people as possible will come and see it, and take the chance to talk to us afterwards.”