Angelina Jolie shares teaser of Netflix passion project she directed based on Cambodian genocide memoir

By Paul Chavez For Dailymail.com

Published: 21:10 EST, 2 February 2017 | Updated: 21:58 EST, 2 February 2017

Angelina Jolie shared a preview on Thursday of her Netflix passion project First They Killed My Father.

The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actress directed the film based on the 2000 memoir First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers by Jolie's friend and former refugee Loung Ung.

The preview clip opened with a title card that read: 'Between 1975 - 1979 Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia's population.'

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Passion project: Angelina Jolie shared a preview clip on Thursday of First They Killed My Father that she directed based on a 2000 memoir

Two columns of armed troops were then shown marching down a city street.

Jolie was seen on the set that employed hundreds of genocide survivors and children of survivors to recreate history for the film. 

'It's the first time there's something on this size about this war in this country,' Jolie said.

The clip showed Cambodians working on the set and tweaking props including barbed wire. 

Major scale: The actress said the film was the first of its size about the war in Cambodia

Cambodian genocide: The clip opened with a title card about Pol Pot's deadly regime

'I feel like nobody is here for themselves and everybody here to do any job is here to put something forward and help their country speak,' Jolie said.

It was a theme echoed in the clip by producer Rithy Panh.

'In order to mourn we must speak. It’s the possibility of using creation to reconstruct ourselves. Telling a story is also mourning, it’s also moving on,' Panh said. 

Mourning story: Film producer Rithy Panh talking about the film helping the nation heal

Large scale: Cambodians were employed to recreate history

Jolie filmed her hit 2001 film Lara Craft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia and the humanitarian crisis she witnessed there sparked her work with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

She has since visited refugee camps in Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Pakistan.

Jolie was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001. 

Hit movie: Jolie is shown in 2001 on the set of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

War story: The film is based on the 2000 memoir First They Killed My Father: A Daughter Of Cambodia Remembers by Jolie's friend and former refugee Loung Ung

She adopted her first child Maddox in 2002 from an orphanage in Battambang, Cambodia.

Jolie credited Maddox with convincing her to make the film after it languished for years.

'He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings,' Jolie recently told The Guardian. 

On the set: Jolie was shown on the set directing the actors and crew

Her story: Loung Ung talked about the significance of Jolie's project

Jolie spoke out against US President Donald Trump's immigration ban on Thursday in an op-ed piece published in The New York Times.

She urged the US to address the refugee crisis 'based on facts, not fear'.

'Refugees are men, women and children caught in the fury of war, or the cross hairs of persecution. Far from being terrorists, they are often the victims of terrorism themselves,' she wrote.

First They Killed My Father will premiere in Siem Reap, Cambodia on February 18.

It will be released globally on Netflix later this year.

Mother and son: Jolie is shown in July 2015 in Los Angeles with son Maddox whom she adopted in 2002 from a Cambodian orphanage

Streaming soon: First They Killed My Father will premiere on February 18 in Cambodia and will stream on Netflix later this year

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