My Khmer Heart

When the Khmer Rouge communists seized power in Cambodia in April 1975, over two million men, women, and children were murdered and dumped into mass graves, while other Cambodians were pressed into forced labor. Religion, art, and books were banned in a frenzy of re-education as Cambodian traditions were swept aside. Now that communist dictator Pol Pot is dead, Cambodia is struggling to re-forge their identity after suffering through a long, brutal regime. Since 1993, Geraldine Cox, nicknamed "big mother" due to her ample size, has run an orphanage for children still struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress syndrome after losing their families in the chaotic butchery of Cambodia's killing fields. With limited means, Cox meets the children's daily needs for food and health care, while also providing lots of love and support. The children face plenty of dangers in the "new" Cambodia: young men (hardly more than boys) are quickly drafted to fight on one side or the other in the country's continuing civil wars, while young girls are sometimes sold into prostitution by their parents. As long as the focus stays on the children, My Khmer Heart remains urgent and powerful; however, much of the screen time is given over to Cox, an Australian with a colorful past, and this aspect has the feel of a proposed "treatment" for a Hollywood film. In fact, Cox's struggle to conceive a child, combined with details about her previous relationships, seem trivial placed beside Cambodia's horrors here. Still, this often powerful documentary is recommended with reservations for large academic and public libraries. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)