Irradiés (2020)

At the center are survivors of war and of attacks involving weapons of mass destruction, who have encountered various forms of evil—for example, in trenches, on atolls, in concentration camps, or through sheer silence. Among those portrayed are the “Hibakusha,” the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Meeting them and hearing eyewitness accounts reminded filmmaker Rithy Panh of his own fate. He survived the genocide committed in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime, a subject he had explored in earlier works. Nature also “has its say,” having suffered from the consequences of war and destruction as well. The film consists largely of archival footage and is accompanied by Marceline Loridan (1928–2018). The French filmmaker survived the Holocaust and later married the renowned Dutch documentary filmmaker Joris Ivens (1898–1989).