Angelina Jolie’s first child, 13-year-old Maddox, was born in Cambodia and her feelings for the country run deep.
So it’s no surprise that the 40-year-old star is basing her next movie project on a memoir by Cambodian author and activist Loung Ung who, as a child, was exposed to the cruel Khmer Rouge regime in her country during the 1970s.
Angelina, who was ‘deeply affected’ by Ung’s story, is set to to direct and produce First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers for Netflix, and she has also co-written the script.
Considering her previous directorial projects, including 2011’s In The Land Of Milk And Honey and last year’s Unbroken, Angelina picks subjects close to the heart.
‘I was deeply affected by Loung’s book,’ Angelina said in a statement, as reported by Variety. ‘It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it. And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son’s homeland.