Killing Fields/Ölüm Tarlaları (1984)

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Killing Fields/Ölüm Tarlaları (1984)

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Killing Fields/Ölüm Tarlaları (1984)

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The film opens in May 1973 in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. The Cambodian national army is fighting a civil war with the communist Khmer Rouge (KR), a result of the Vietnam War overspilling that country’s borders. Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist and interpreter for New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg, awaits the arrival of Schanberg at the Phnom Penh airport when he leaves suddenly. Schanberg arrives after his flight is delayed for three hours and, irritated that Pran is not at the airport, takes a cab to his hotel. Pran meets Schanberg later and tells him that an incident has occurred in a town, Neak Leung; allegedly, an American B-52 has bombed the town by mistake.

Schanberg and Pran try to find transport to the site. Pran is able to sneak himself and Sydney onto a police boat that takes them to Neak Leung. When they arrive, they find that the town has indeed been bombed and hundreds have been killed, with many more wounded, including women and children. Schanberg and Pran are arrested when they try to photograph the execution of two KR operatives by Cambodian army officers. They are eventually released and Schanberg is furious when the international press corps arrives with the US Army to report a "sanitised" version of the story.

The story moves ahead two years, to 1975. The international embassies are being evacuated in anticipation of an invasion of the capital by the KR. Schanberg manages to secure evacuation orders for Pran, his wife and their four children. However, Pran insists that he would stay back with Schanberg and help him. Pran’s family is evacuated with the other international diplomats.