Angelina Jolie eager for adopted Cambodian son to learn heritage
Angelina Jolie is eager to have her adopted son Maddox learn more about his heritage as she gears up to direct a film about his native Cambodia.
The Unbroken director adopted Maddox from a Cambodian orphanage when he was just seven months old in 2002, and now, nearly 13 years later, both Jolie and Maddox are returning to his homeland as she helms First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
The film is based on Cambodian author and human rights activist
Loung Ung's tale of surviving the notorious Khmer Rouge regime, and
Jolie tells the Associated Press that her goal is to help her teen
son remember where he came from as he assists her on the
project.
She says, "Maddox will be on set every day after school and
involved behind the scenes... As Maddox and I prepare the film we
will be side by side learning about his country. He is turning 14
next week and this is a very important time for him to understand
who he is. He is my son but he is also a son of Cambodia. This is
the time for our family to understand all that that means to him
and to us."
Jolie also co-wrote the screenplay with Ung and is producing the
project, which the filmmaker tells local newspaper In Phnom Penh
will be told from the child's perspective.
She says, "The intent of this project is not to revisit the horrors
of the war but to bring to the screen characters that people around
the world will identify with and empathize with, and help to teach
people about this country that I love and respect, and the
Cambodian culture and family life I so admire."
Jolie, who has two other adopted children and three biological kids
with husband Brad Pitt, has already touched down in Phnom Penh to
check in on the progress of her two longest-running charities, the
Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation and the Maddox Chivan Children's
Center, organizations which Jolie says her son will take over when
he is older.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is
slated for release on Internet streaming site Netflix in late
2016.