Writing

Loung Ung

Loung Ung is an author, activist, and co-screenplay writer of the critically acclaimed 2017 Netflix Original Movie, First They Killed My Father, which is based on her memoir and directed by Angelina Jolie. Born in 1970 in Phnom Penh, Loung was just five years old when Khmer Rouge soldiers forcibly evacuated her family from their home during a mass exodus. By 1978, the regime had taken the lives of her parents and two siblings. Orphaned and separated from her family, Loung was trained as a child soldier in a camp where she was indoctrinated with violence and hatred. In 1980, she and her elder brother fled to Thailand by boat, where they resided in a refugee camp for five months.…