“Intimate, deeply human.” — Washington Post
“Absolutely harrowing” — New York Times (A Times Critics’ Pick)
4 stars ★★★★ “A riveting and illuminating documentary…weaves a historical and psychological tapestry.” — Seattle Times
“Angkor Awakens… has undeniable power.”— Los Angeles Times
“A compelling portrait of a traumatized nation” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Strikingly well produced…uses seldom-seen footage… first-class shots and vivid contemporary scene-setting” — East Bay Express— Berkeley & San Francisco
“Cambodia’s recovery comes to light…Illuminating and often affecting.” — San Francisco Examiner
“A chilling, tearful, and hopeful survey of a nation.” — NW Asian Weekly
“Breathtaking glimpses of Cambodia’s rolling rice fields, forests, shorelines, temples and palaces.” — Cambodia Daily
“Four years in the making… is an ambitious study of Cambodian politics as it operates within the collective psyche, spread across generations. For all its exploration of the darkness, Angkor Awakens is not a tragic film. — Phnom Penh Post
Angkor Awaken Press Kit:
News Coverage of "Angkor Awakens"
Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/lifestyle/film/1175229/rousing-history-from-its-slumber
Open Democracy
https://opendemocracy.net/billy-sawyers/angkor-awakens
Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/lifestyle/angkor-awakens-puts-spotlight-nations-youth
Cambodian Daily
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sweeping-film-views-cambodia-high-122157/
Ithaca Times
Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/new-documentary-digs-deep-cambodian-psyche-finds-hope
Phnom Penh Post (Hun Sen Interview)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/getting-cambodias-heads
Cornell Daily Sun
http://cornellsun.com/2016/10/05/a-story-of-selective-remembrance-angkor-awakens-at-cornell-cinema/
Cornell Chronicle
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2016/09/angkor-awakens-explores-cambodias-hope-traumatic-past
Ithaca Journal
Cornell Daily Sun
http://cornellsun.com/2016/09/20/professor-creates-portrait-of-cambodia-in-film/
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Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/7days/they-call-it-myanmar-meeting-maker
Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/post-weekend/getting-cambodias-heads
Khmer Times
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/16145/film-interview-high-on-pm---s-un-visit/
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/19985/robert-lieberman---s----breaking-baksabat---/
Selected Review for “Angkor Awakens— A Portrait of Cambodia”
Rousing history from its slumber:
How a Westerner fitted Cambodia's history inside one 90-minute documentary
“Angkor Awakens” pulls a rabbit out of the hat with its extensive interview with strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen, whose reflections on the state of his country as well as his memory of the Khmer Rouge era become a center piece of the story.
“Angkor Awakens” director Robert H. Lieberman condenses the past and present of Cambodia into 90 minutes. From the ruins of Angkor Wat to the Khmer Rouge horror and present-day testimonies, the film highlights the key episodes in the country's cultural and political development.
—Bangkok Post
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Angkor Awakens is a probing, psychological account of Cambodia, an arresting new film that tackles Cambodia’s entangled past unreservedly.
It offers a profound insight into a Cambodian psyche fraught with trauma and trepidation (and) tells this tragic story in full, and finds plenty of cause for hope at the end.
In one of the film’s most harrowing sections, we are shown footage of land disputes, acid attacks and brutal violence on the streets between ordinary citizens.
In the film’s most striking scene, Hun Sen becomes incensed when questioned about this state-sanctioned violence. “In America when a person is shot by the police … is it Obama doing the shooting?” he asks Lieberman provocatively, moving to the edge of his seat and pointing at the director. “You say people are doing it under my orders. So how many people has Obama killed like that?”
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Breathtaking glimpses of Cambodia’s rolling rice fields, forests, shorelines, temples and palaces fill the opening sequence of the documentary “Angkor Awakens: A Portrait of Cambodia”—an attempt to encapsulate the country’s vast scenery in one short sweep. In a similar way, the film tries to wrap the entirety of Cambodia’s complex history into 125 minutes.
Mr. Lieberman’s use of Khmer shadow puppets to illustrate the country’s history brings a unique color to the documentary without trivializing the gravity of the story.
—Cambodia Daily
"The director of "Ankgor Awaken” Robert H. Lieberman, digs into the generational effects of genocide and depicts the future Cambodia with his unique perspective as a child of the Holocaust. I am very honored to be the first Chinese reviewer of the film. As the only Chinese TV correspondent ever based in Cambodia to do an in-depth report on the trial of Khmer Rouge, I have heard over the years so many sad and horrific stories…however, the stories filmed by Robert Lieberman still touched me deeply. "
—Susie Deng, Editor-in-Chief, Sina TV News, China
Angkor Awakens peels back the modern westernized rhetoric… and does an amazing job in piecing together an often ignored narrative from the many voices and accounts of the Cambodian people who experienced, currently experience and will continue to experience the effects of the 20th century’s chaos. What’s incredible, as the film shows, is how Cambodia is slowly managing to recover from the complete overturning of its culture—that despite the violence, people are able to hope for a better future even through the worst of times.
—Cornell Daily Sun
Four years in the making… is an ambitious study of Cambodian politics as it operates within the collective psyche, spread across generations._
The film takes on the saga of Cambodia’s history for those beyond its borders.
For all its exploration of the darkness, Angkor Awakens is not a tragic film.
‑Phnom Penh Post
In just under 90 minutes, Lieberman’s film covers a great deal of complex history and background on Cambodia, taking in the Vietnam War, Kent State and Nixon and Kissinger…. it’s brave of the film to include Bernie Sanders in debate calling Kissinger on the carpet for war crimes.)
The film confronts the anger that drives the new generation, as well as the lack of information and education about the past.
—The Ithaca Times
A psychological analysis of the people…. A usually reluctant subject, Hun Sen agreed to an interview, threw out his prepared answers and had a free-ranging conversation with Lieberman
The new film follows the international success of Lieberman’s documentary, “They Call It Myanmar,” a 2012 New York Times Critics’ Pick. His current project is an animated feature adapting his 2015 novel “The Nazis, My Father and Me,” being made in Paris with “The Triplets of Belleville” producer Didier Brunner.
—Cornell Chronicle