Refiguring the perpetrator in Rithy Panh's documentary films: S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell

During the Pol Pot regime an estimated two million Cambodians were systematically exterminated by torture, disease, starvation, and forced labour. Understanding what happened was necessary in order to find reconciliation in the aftermath of this human catastrophe, where survivors and perpetrators continued living together. Rithy Panh, survivor and filmmaker, became part of this reconstruction process through his cinema. Focusing on S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003) and Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell (2012), this article explores Panh ' s representation of the perpetrator, survivor and their encounter. More specifically, it examines the role of the artistic production as a medium of representing the hidden parts of the perpetrator ' s implication in the act of perpetration. Yet, the object of this study is not only to analyse Panh's films but also his emotions in his involvement with the perpetrators, which are provided more specifically in his narrative The Elimination (2014). By examining these two components of Pahn's work, and the ways in which they complement each other, it provides a richer framework, revealing Panh's significance and his contributions in Perpetrator's Studies.