Count Angelina Jolie among the pro-Netflix camp. As directors like Christopher Nolan debate the streaming service’s merits, Jolie’s new movie, “First They Killed My Father,” hits Netflix on Sept. 15. The trailer, released Wednesday, previews a harrowing drama about a young girl’s experiences during Pol Pot’s totalitarian regime in 1970s Cambodia.
“First They Killed My Father” has stoked controversy in recent weeks. A Vanity Fair profile about Jolie said the movie’s casting directors played a “game” while auditioning kids for the main role. They would place money on a table, ask the child how she would use it and then take the money away to gauge her emotional reaction. In a statement to HuffPost, Jolie refuted these details, saying it was an improvisational “exercise” and no money was taken away from the kids. “I would be outraged myself if this had happened,” she said.
Jolie has been working on “First They Killed My Father” for Netflix since 2015, when she optioned Loung Ung’s memoir of the same name. Ung and Jolie share a screenplay credit. “Father” is very much in keeping with Jolie’s previous directorial efforts: 2011′s “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” a romantic film set during the Bosnian War, and 2014′s “Unbroken,” a World War II survival epic.
