Jolie steps out for Netflix premiere with her kids

SIAM REAP — Actress Angelina Jolie made headlines when she attended the Cambodia premiere of her original Netflix film, First They Killed My Father.

Directed by Jolie, First They Killed My Father is an adaptation of Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung’s memoir of surviving the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1978. The story is told through her eyes, from the age of five, when the Khmer Rouge came to power, to nine years old. The film depicts the indomitable spirit and devotion of Loung and her family as they struggle to stay together during the Khmer Rouge years.

Attending the premiere with her children, the mother of six Jolie was first in Cambodia to shoot scenes for Tomb Raider (2001). Her eldest child Maddox, 15, was adopted in 2002 from an orphanage in Battambang.

She and Maddox were joined by her other children — Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10 and eight-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne — for the Netflix premiere.

“I wanted to focus not just on the war but on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son’s birth parents may have gone through. And I wanted to know him better and I wanted to know this country better,” Jolie recently told The Guardian.

She revealed that Maddox helped with notes on the script, and even attended production meetings for the film.

The premiere took place at the Terrace of the Elephants at the Angkor Wat Temple Complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia, ahead of the film’s worldwide release later this year on Netflix.