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Facing the Khmer Rouge

The French Embassy caught in the fall of Phnom Penh 

April 17 - May 8, 1975

Opening on Tuesday, May 6th at 6:30pm   
Exhibition until August 28th, 2025
In French and Khmer // Free entry

Exactly fifty years ago, on April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, ending five years of a devastating and murderous civil war. The Khmer Republic's troops, led by Field Marshal Lon Nol and Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak and supported by the United States (which was engaged in the Vietnam War), surrendered their arms to the National United Front of Kampuchea. The FUNK was officially chaired by Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who was deposed on March 18, 1970, but on the ground, it was the Cambodian communists who were in charge.

The radical nature of the revolution imposed on the population upon the Angkar (the Communist Party of Kampuchea) seizing power led to one in four Cambodians dying of starvation, exhaustion, illness, or murder.

This exhibition revisits this historic reversal and the specific case of the French Embassy, ​​where hundreds of people took refuge. The opening of the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows us to revisit these "400 hours of closed-door sessions at the French Embassy," as journalist Jean-Jacques Cazaux wrote. Two weeks during which so many lives were turned upside down.

Alongside the exhibition, a roundtable discussion with François Bizot (via videoconference) and Roland Neveu (in person), as well as a series of films at the Institut Français cinema, will be organized to guide visitors through this work of remembrance and tribute.

Credits:
This exhibition was produced by the French Institute of Cambodia and the French Embassy in Cambodia.
Scientific curators: Anne-Laure Porée and Grégoire Duplanil-Weill
Scenography and design: Melon Rouge
Partners: INA, Bophana Centre

Check the full schedule