Angelina Jolie Set to Direct Netflix Original Movie ‘First They Killed My Father’

Angelina Jolie has found her next project. The actress turned director is set to helm an adaptation of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers with Netflix.

First They Killed My Father is a harrowing and poignant memoir from Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung about surviving the deadly Khmer Rouge regime.

“I was deeply affected by Loung‘s book,” said Angelina in a statement. “It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it. And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son‘s homeland.” She added, “It is a dream come true to be able to adapt this book for the screen, and I‘m honored to work alongside Loung and filmmaker Rithy Panh.”

Maddox, Jolie Pitt‘s Cambodian-born son, will also be involved in the production of the movie.

Films like this are hard to watch but important to see,” she continued. “They are also hard to get made. Netflix is making this possible, and I am looking forward to working with them and excited that the film will reach so many people.”

You can read more about Ung’s memoir and how the project came to be, per Netflix, below:

Loung Ung was five years old when the Khmer Rouge assumed power over Cambodia in 1975 and began a four-year reign of terror and genocide in which nearly two million Cambodians died. Forced from her family‘s home in Phnom Penh, Ung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans while her six siblings were sent to labor camps. Ung survived and wrote First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, which was first published in 2000. Jolie Pitt read the book and contacted Ung over a decade ago and they became close friends. Together they adapted the book into a screenplay.

The film will be released in both Khmer and English and will be made available to Netflix members in late 2016.

Photo Credit:Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com

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