Angelina Jolie Reportedly Collaborated With A Rights-Violating Army While Filming In Cambodia

We learned yesterday, thanks to her recent interview with Vanity Fair, Angelina Jolie had probably traumatized a bunch of poor kids (no literally, poor orphans and circus children) while casting for her film First They Killed My Father in Cambodia. According to a human rights expert, there’s more not-great things to know about that film shoot.

The Cut brings to our attention a little story about who Angelina worked with on the film. First They Killed My Father is based on a memoir about a young girl’s survival during Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge years in the mid to late 70s. According to Vanity Fair:

“Cambodia went all in – closing off Battambang for days, giving the filmmakers permits to land in remote zones, providing them with 500 officials from their actual army to play the Khmer Rouge army. “It’s not a poetic thing to say – [this film] was made by the country,” says Jolie. Between cast and crew, some 3,500 Cambodians participated.

Okay so 500 Cambodian military officials were involved. Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, isn’t crazy about that. He tells The Cut:

“To ask for permission to make a film and thereby invest in the local economy is fine, and you’re going to have to have some meetings with some government officials. But you can take a stance to make sure you don’t empower, legitimize or pay the wrong people. And working with the Cambodian army is a no-go zone, it’s a red flag, and it’s a terrible mistake.

This is an army that is basically an occupying force of a dictatorship, it’s used to put down environmental activists – the kind of thing that she stands for is in direct contrast to what this government is.”

The Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, allegedly doesn’t have a great track record with human rights organizations. The Cut reached out to both Angelina Jolie and Netflix, which is airing First The Killed My Father, and neither have gotten back to them.

Brad goes on to say that Angelina definitely could have filmed in Cambodia without collaborating with their army, something he describes as continuing “to be an extremely abusive rights-violating force.” Then he damn near yanked the cheekbones off her face with this:

“There’s moral hazard in having any relationship or dealings with the Cambodian government. It’s not clear whether she understands that and it’s not clear whether she cares about it.”

Once Brad Pitt cleans up the Fresca he spat all over the place after reading that, he’s probably going to put together a little care package for Brad Adams. You know, just a few things, like the keys to an unmarked vehicle, an application to change his name, a one-way plane ticket as far away from his home as possible, with a note that says: “From one Brad to another – seriously, good luck man.” I wouldn’t want to want to be around when Angelina Jolie finds out someone dared to come for the greatest celebrity humanitarian The U.N. has ever seen. He’ll need a humanitarian relief effort to save him from Angelina’s wrath.

Pic: YouTube