brother number one

The NZ Film Festival is on at the moment. It has made me realise that I love documentaries. Fictional film can be brilliant but the amount I have thought, felt, enjoyed and been challenged by the handful of docos we've been to seen this year has shown me there's power in reality.

On Sunday I went to the premier of a NZ documentary called 'Brother Number One'.

It is the story of a NZ man - Rob Hamill, whose brother was killed in the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia 30 years ago, testifying at the trial of one of the senior leaders - Duch.

The detail of the tragedy in that country, the decimation of a society and the deaths of close to 3 million people was told in conjunction with the story of one NZ family who lost so much through the loss of their brother. It is completely heart-wrenching.

It brought up so many questions for me as I watched, of justice and restoration; of how one responds to or even begins to address such tragic situations.

What isn't shown in the clip above is that Duch, the leader of the most significant torture camp and prison during the regime, has since become a Christian and has been working for World Vision on the Thai border. There was a question in the film of the 'convenience' of this transition from Karma to Christ; one which was very much there for the asking. Interestingly though - Duch is one of very few leaders who admit responsibility for what happened.

I guess it felt trite for me to comment on any of this, being of such removed position and without ability to empathise or even properly understand. But I went to see this film with Sueanne whose family are from Cambodia themselves and lived through these very events. As we discussed the film afterwards I felt it convicting and challenging to hear Sueanne question where grace and vengeance lay in this story. It is not clear cut. It is not easy.

'Brother Number One' is worth engaging with. There are more trials of leaders to go and it is a story that will continue to be in the news. Not just because of this but because this wasn't an isolated, unique event. To be watching that film the very morning we woke up to hear close to 90 people had be shot dead in Norway, that famine continues in Africa, that Amy Winehouse's body had given up at 27 - this is a broken world in need of a Saviour.