New Year Baby


New Year Baby is a 2006 documentary film that tells the story of a family that survived the Cambodian genocide, and started a new life in the United States. The film was directed by Socheata Poeuv and produced by Charles Vogl. It won the 2007 IDFA Movies That Matter Award, an initiative of Amnesty International, as well as eight other international awards. It was aired on National PBS in 2008.

The story moves to the present, when Socheata returns home for Christmas. Her mother calls a family meeting and reveals a secret that Socheatas entire family had kept from her her two sisters are not actually her sisters, her brother is her halfbrother, and her mother had a husband before Socheatas father. Socheatas family had been melded together in a Khmer Rouge labor camp, assembled from shards of an extended family that was shattered when family members were killed in the Cambodian genocide. After this secret is revealed, Socheatas mother and father invite Socheata and her brother to Cambodia, and Socheata agrees to go to discover what other secrets her family had left behind.As Socheata spends time in Cambodia, more is gradually discovered about her familys past. Her two sisters, Mala and Leakhena, are actually her cousins. They were taken to a Khmer Rouge labor camp, along with their mother and father. Their father was taken away when they arrived, and they never saw him again. Their mother died of starvation not long after, leaving them orphans, at which point Socheatas mother adopted them. Socheatas mother had a husband and son when she was taken to the labor camp. After her husband was killed, she continued to care for her son and Mala and Leakhena. She met Socheatas father in the Khmer Rouge labor camp, and they were married by a Khmer Rouge cadre. ........

Source: Wikipedia


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