Between 1975 and 1979, nearly a quarter of the Cambodian population, almost two million people, died under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Susanne Brandstätter's sublime film commences with the UN tribunal, which is negotiating against the Khmer butcher „Comrade Duch“, and deals with how Cambodia's young adults cope with today's gruesome legacy of torture, hunger, and mass murder. Using three examples, the film shows the painful inner-family processes that also arise due to questions about the past and, with all the necessary consequences, the film proves to be a small miracle of sensitivity.
Ute Baumhackl, KLEINE ZEITUNG
„How was it under Pol Pot, mother?“ The name Pol Pot is associated with the image of millions of deaths in Cambodia in the years from 1975 to 1979. The gruesome past was silenced for decades in that country. With „The Future's Past“ Susanne Brandstätter has made a gripping documentary about young Cambodians who want to find out what happened at that time.“
Alexander Musik, ORF.at
In addition to the tireless efforts of Rithy Panh, whose films study the visual memory of Cambodia, comes now "The Future's Past", a powerful documentary from Austria.
Andreas Ungerböck, RAY KINOMAGAZIN
Yes, it's a déjà vu experience. As a citizen of a country where one of the worst criminals of the 20th century rampaged, all of this has already been heard and seen. How followers emphasize, they couldn't have acted any other way, otherwise they would also have died. How perpetrators only admit their crimes after persistent probing and then show hardly any remorse. How the young generation questions their parents' and grandparents' actions. Originating with the UN tribunal against Pol Pot's regime, Susanne Brandstätter's „The Futures Past“ deals with the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia. She visits families, allows space for the opinions of young and old to clash with one another, listens to the elders tell about their terrible memories. Buried depths break open. Forgiving seems still difficult. A didactically valuable film with an exotic component.
KURIER
It is all the more enjoyable to highlight Susanne Brandstätter's great „The Future's Past - Creating Cambodia “. [...] Joerg Burger was honored for the best cinematography in the field of documentary film. He deserves the credit for skillfully capturing two opposing worlds: the ex-Cambodian family in the metropolis of Paris and the flooded, almost surreal-looking tropical landscapes of Cambodia. Burger's landscape shots leave the viewer time to somewhat digest the tragic testimonies of the survivors of the Pol Pot regime and to relate them to the landscape.
Alexander Music, ORF.at
In her documentary film „The Future's Past "“ Susanne Brandstätter examines the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, which once murdered a quarter of its own population in Cambodia. Brandstätter focuses on young people in today's country, on thse born later who are now beginning to ask questions about the past. It is a historical reappraisal, as well as a coping with the past, that Brandstätter captures in orderly but also sober images and with which she builds a bridge to our own history: the people of Cambodia are only beginning the essential process of their collective coping with the past.
Matthias Greuling, WIENERZEITUNG
Ute Baumhackl, KLEINE ZEITUNG
„How was it under Pol Pot, mother?“ The name Pol Pot is associated with the image of millions of deaths in Cambodia in the years from 1975 to 1979. The gruesome past was silenced for decades in that country. With „The Future's Past“ Susanne Brandstätter has made a gripping documentary about young Cambodians who want to find out what happened at that time.“
Alexander Musik, ORF.at
In addition to the tireless efforts of Rithy Panh, whose films study the visual memory of Cambodia, comes now "The Future's Past", a powerful documentary from Austria.
Andreas Ungerböck, RAY KINOMAGAZIN
Yes, it's a déjà vu experience. As a citizen of a country where one of the worst criminals of the 20th century rampaged, all of this has already been heard and seen. How followers emphasize, they couldn't have acted any other way, otherwise they would also have died. How perpetrators only admit their crimes after persistent probing and then show hardly any remorse. How the young generation questions their parents' and grandparents' actions. Originating with the UN tribunal against Pol Pot's regime, Susanne Brandstätter's „The Futures Past“ deals with the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia. She visits families, allows space for the opinions of young and old to clash with one another, listens to the elders tell about their terrible memories. Buried depths break open. Forgiving seems still difficult. A didactically valuable film with an exotic component.
KURIER
It is all the more enjoyable to highlight Susanne Brandstätter's great „The Future's Past - Creating Cambodia “. [...] Joerg Burger was honored for the best cinematography in the field of documentary film. He deserves the credit for skillfully capturing two opposing worlds: the ex-Cambodian family in the metropolis of Paris and the flooded, almost surreal-looking tropical landscapes of Cambodia. Burger's landscape shots leave the viewer time to somewhat digest the tragic testimonies of the survivors of the Pol Pot regime and to relate them to the landscape.
Alexander Music, ORF.at
In her documentary film „The Future's Past "“ Susanne Brandstätter examines the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime, which once murdered a quarter of its own population in Cambodia. Brandstätter focuses on young people in today's country, on thse born later who are now beginning to ask questions about the past. It is a historical reappraisal, as well as a coping with the past, that Brandstätter captures in orderly but also sober images and with which she builds a bridge to our own history: the people of Cambodia are only beginning the essential process of their collective coping with the past.
Matthias Greuling, WIENERZEITUNG