The powerful upcoming Netflix movie directed by Angelina Jolie called First They Killed My Father is based off the bestselling memoir by Loung Ung. This film is about a child soldier serving under the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian genocide.

In an interview with Vanity Fair last month Angelina Jolie described the casting process which already caused a controversy. Jolie said she looked for children in orphanages and slum schools, specifically after those who had experienced suffering throughout their lives.

In Vanity Fair article Jolie shares what those children had to do when meeting with the Director. They were presented with money on a table and asked to snatch it away. The children would then have to come up with a reason for why they needed the money.

"Srey Moch [the child chosen for the part of Loung] was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time," Jolie told the magazine, "When she was asked later what the money was for, she said her grandfather had died, and they didn't have enough money for a nice funeral."

Jolie response was the following, "The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened... The point of this film is to bring attention to the horrors children face in war, and to help fight to protect them."

Jolie's relationship with Cambodia first began when in 2000 she filmed her blockbuster movie Tomb Raider. Jolie's first adopted child Maddox is from Cambodia. First They Killed My Father is very much a passion project for Jolie.
The trailer does not feature any dialogue, focusing solely on the processes of war and genocide through the eyes of a child.

First They Killed My Father arrives on Netflix September 15.