In Cambodia, it served a more practical purpose.

Before modern international courts, commissions of inquiry, or formal human-rights mechanisms were in place, the film became one of the few ways a devastated country could convey what had happened — and why the Khmer Rouge could not be allowed to return to power.

In this - season 2's bonus episode of Who Killed Haing Ngor - Patricia Nunan revisits the film through firsthand accounts, exploring how "history is a living thing."