Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily Entertainment GuideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsPride MonthAmerican Black Film FestivalSummer Watch GuideSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
8 suggestions available
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Missing Picture

Original title: L'image manquante
  • 2013
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
The Missing Picture (2013)
Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
Play trailer1:56
4 Videos
94 Photos
Documentary

Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

  • Director
    • Rithy Panh
  • Writers
    • Rithy Panh
    • Christophe Bataille
  • Stars
    • Randal Douc
    • Jean-Baptiste Phou
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    3.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Rithy Panh
    • Writers
      • Rithy Panh
      • Christophe Bataille
    • Stars
      • Randal Douc
      • Jean-Baptiste Phou
    • 16User reviews
    • 82Critic reviews
    • 87Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 12 wins & 16 nominations total

    Videos4

    Theatrical Trailer
    Trailer 1:56
    Theatrical Trailer
    The Missing Picture
    Trailer 1:37
    The Missing Picture
    The Missing Picture
    Trailer 1:37
    The Missing Picture
    L'image manquante: Childhood in the Film Studio (UK)
    Clip 2:12
    L'image manquante: Childhood in the Film Studio (UK)
    L'image manquante: Open Air Projection (UK)
    Clip 1:34
    L'image manquante: Open Air Projection (UK)

    Photos94

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 90
    View Poster

    Top cast2

    Edit
    Randal Douc
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    Jean-Baptiste Phou
    • Narrator
    • (English version)
    • (voice)
    • Director
      • Rithy Panh
    • Writers
      • Rithy Panh
      • Christophe Bataille
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews16

    7.33.6K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    6planktonrules

    This film could use a huge infusion of energy.

    "The Missing Picture" is a very unusual documentary and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It's so unusual because filmmaker Rithy Panh tells the story both with archival footage AND little figurines that he created for the film! Perhaps this was a way to make the horror of the Khmer Rouge easier for the audience to watch, as an hour and a half of footage of atrocities would be just about unwatchable considering how brutal this regime was. And, since you don't see live actors in the film-- just narration and film clips, seeing it in its original French language or the optional English language form is a roughly identical experience, or at least I assume so.

    While I enjoyed how unique this film was and figure its uniqueness probably led to its Oscar nomination, I must confess that the narration made an exciting story very, very slow and a bit tedious. Perhaps the French language version is better, I don't know. All I know is that a film like "The Killing Fields" or a regular documentary about the subject is something I could have enjoyed or at least stuck with better.
    9StevePulaski

    Coloring in the omitted lines

    Cambodia's 2013 entry to the Best Foreign Film category of the 85th Academy Awards, The Missing Picture, concerns a dark topic of history you probably didn't learn about in your high school world history/global connections course. Or perhaps you did learn about it but it quickly escaped your mind, like many other pieces of information. It concerns the tragedy of the Khmer Rouge uprising in 1970's Cambodia, and such a tragedy has never been explored quite like it has been in this particular film.

    A reading program I was forced to use my freshman year in high school hard an entire unit devoted to the Khmer Rouge and the events surrounding a time of unimaginable darkness for a country many, including myself, know tragically little about. I, admittedly, likely couldn't point to the country on a map. The unit was my personal favorite, as it talked about a journalist by the name of Dith Pran, who found himself victim to the merciless "Killing Fields" that the Khmer Rouge set up during this violent uprising. However, The Missing Picture documents a much more personal story than the highly-publicized Pran story, and instead, focuses on a filmmaker's tragic experience with the event in a style that is highly meditative and deeply fascinating.

    It was April 17, 1975 that the Khmer Rouge, a communist regime, seized the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. From that day forward, thirteen-year-old Rithy Panh would never be the same, with him, his parents, his relatives, neighbors, and villagers all being led into internment camps, stripped of their belongings and personal possession to be clothed in black cloaks and given a number that would serve as their identity. They endured this abusive and crippling hell for four years, many of them dying or being killed in the process.

    Thirty-nine years later, Panh has found the courage and strength to create a surprisingly artful picture that literally paints vivid dioramas and ideas as to what endured under the Khmer Rouge regime, led by Pol Pot, an active member of the communist party. Panh employs the use of rare and haunting archival footage, providing the idea for life under Khmer Rouge better than present-day interviews ever could, but Panh's original technique comes in the form of impeccably detailed clay dioramas that provide us with an almost contradictory whimsy to such horrific events.

    Panh also shows himself painstakingly constructing these unique little clay figures, even getting emotional as he constructs clay figures that represent his deceased parents. He paints them with the lovely imperfections of real humans in terms of color, but paints them with unfathomable accuracy in terms of facial structure and torso-build.

    What is even more unfathomable is how Panh updates these figures little-by-little overtime, having their ribcages protrude out more, their facial features begin to wither, as well as showing their stomachs enlarge due to the horribly inadequate conditions the Khmer Rouge bestowed upon the communities, and this attention to detail, combined with the absolutely original and unique presentation qualities for a documentary make The Missing Picture a beautifully made film in the visual department.

    If there's one detractor, it's Panh's narration, which can best be described as monotone and occasionally droning. When the subject matter fits, however, the voice can work to compliment what is going on in the film, but there are times when the film could use a bit more excitement or even identifiable emotion, especially when Panh begins to talk about the alternative routes, good and bad, that could've also happened to Cambodia in the 1970's. When the narration becomes distracting, I found myself sinking out of the exposition and into the visuals or archival footage, which leads me to say this film is much more a visual/audio trip than anything else.

    Yet this shouldn't distract too heavily from the great qualities The Missing Picture provides us, be them visually or narratively, as it tells us a story many of us haven't heard from a perspective we never quiet expected.

    Directed by: Rithy Panh.
    6sol-

    Where pictures are missing

    "A picture can be stolen - a thought cannot" states the narrator of this documentary about the atrocities committed by Khmer Rouge in late 1970s Cambodia. While not actually narrated by him for reasons unknown, the script for the film is written by director Rithy Panh, a survivor of the atrocities, in an usual touch, Panh uses clay figures to depict incidents he experienced but for which no archive footage exists. Going back to that earlier quote, the film stands up as a testament of the human mind to recall personal horrors in great detail as one's thoughts can never be stolen. The clay figures are remarkably detailed and especially effective in a moment when Panh recalls drinking muddied water while watched by seemingly stunned local herds. Unique as the film may be though, it outstays its welcome long before it is over. The narration is extremely repetitive and as the film keeps focusing on emotions that its director personally felt, it crosses the border into maudlin territory while ultimately becoming less a document of the times and more the faded memories of a single man. The film is very deliberately paced too so one really needs to be in the right mood to appreciate it. The clay work is, however, never less than remarkable and as the film takes time to focus on Panh also creating all the models, sculpting then painting them, it is hard not to admire the care and consideration put into them. This was clearly a very personal film for Panh and the fact that the film makes one want to read up more about the Khmer Rouge horrors certainly says something.
    Red_Identity

    Could've been better

    I love me some slow, moody, atmospheric and introspective films. Yet I found this to be really, really slow at times. The premise of using clay figurines is a great one, and at times it really added to the film's power by not forcing images and allowing us to use our imagination, but it was used a lot and together with sort of ho-hum archival footage, and the dreamy narration, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the film to be really slow to watch at times. It just got a bit repetitive and the subject matter wasn't presented in a more fascinating way. Still, I found some of it effective and the film is pretty original in that way so I have to give it props where they are due.
    8l_rawjalaurence

    Stark Depiction of Life Under the Tyranny of the Pol Pot Regime

    Several reviewers have commented on the basic themes of Rithy Panh's documentary; what is perhaps more interesting is the way in which the title operates on two levels. First, Panh's film aims to fill in "the missing picture" of life in Cambodia under the Pol Pot regime. For most of the time, the only visual material available on this regime was propaganda films depicting an idealized world of workers happily contributing to the new country Kampuchea's collective sense of well- being. Through a mixture of clay figures and archive footage, Panh proves the opposite; most citizens had to get used to a combination of perpetual hunger and enforced labor. The clay figures are an important element of this film, suggesting that human beings can be rendered malleable in any way their makers/ captors choose. At another level, the film tries to recreate the "missing picture" of Panh's past; at the age of fifty, he looks back at his childhood in the pre-Pol Pot era, a world of color and variety that was ruthlessly swept away, as the people were forced to wear black and work inhumanly long hours in the rice- fields. The experience left an indelible mark on Panh's character, as he lost most of his family due to starvation, without being able to do a thing about it. Even now he feels guilty for his inaction. Living under a tyrannous regime was bad enough, but what was much worse for Panh was the way in which that regime rendered him powerless, as well as depriving his life of the possibilities - both personal as well as professional - that could have been available in the pre-Pol Pot era. The "missing picture" cannot be recreated, however hard he tries. The film ends on a somber note, as Panh reminds us how much the souls of the millions who died during the Pol Pot regime still haunt those who survived. While efforts have been made to erase the past (a lake has been built over one of the mass graves), he still feels somehow united with the dead rather than the living - an indication, perhaps, of the emotional and physical consequences of tyranny. While THE MISSING PICTURE offers a country-specific interpretation of the past, its message should be heeded by everyone about the consequences of living under an absolutist government.

    More like this

    S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
    7.2
    S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine
    Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia
    8.3
    Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia
    A Night of Knowing Nothing
    7.3
    A Night of Knowing Nothing
    Welfare
    8.2
    Welfare
    I've Loved You So Long
    7.6
    I've Loved You So Long
    Too Late to Die Young
    6.4
    Too Late to Die Young
    Reality
    6.8
    Reality
    The Heart of the World
    7.6
    The Heart of the World
    Trenque Lauquen
    7.3
    Trenque Lauquen
    Chronicle of a Summer
    7.5
    Chronicle of a Summer
    Primary
    7.1
    Primary
    Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
    7.0
    Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Official submission of Cambodia to the Oscars 2014 best foreign language film category.
    • Quotes

      [It's not a picture of loved ones i seek, i want to touch them, their voices are missing, so i wont tell. I want to leave it all, leave my language, my country in vain and my childhood returns. Now it's the boy who seeks me out, i see him, he wants to speak to me but words are hard to find]

    • Connections
      Featured in The Oscars (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      We Were Staring at the Sky
      Composed by Marc Marder

      Co-Edition JBA Production/Boosey and Hawkes Music Publ LTD

      © JBA Production

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ18

    • How long is The Missing Picture?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 19, 2014 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Cambodia
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site (Japan)
    • Language
      • French
    • Also known as
      • 遺失的映像
    • Filming locations
      • Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
    • Production companies
      • Catherine Dussart Productions (CDP)
      • ARTE
      • Bophana Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $52,164
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $10,148
      • Mar 23, 2014
    • Gross worldwide
      • $78,097
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 32 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    The Missing Picture (2013)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Missing Picture (2013) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Production art
    List
    Staff Picks: What to Watch This Month
    See our picks
    Production art
    Photos
    Streaming Stars, Then and Now
    See the gallery
    Editorial Image
    Photos
    LGBTQIA+ Power Couples of Hollywood
    See the gallery

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb app
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb app
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb app
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.