Child Soldier: Sayon’s Story

Project by The Gardner Documentary Group

There are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers worldwide. This film shows how one of them came to grips with his childhood experiences, what he witnessed, and carried with him as he came of age. Child Soldier: Sayon’s Story tells the story of a former child-soldier under Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge. Abducted at the age of six, he is now a community activist in Lowell, Massachusetts. Sayon Soeun appears to be living the Khmer-American dream alongside his wife, her extended family, and a thriving Khmer community. However, painful questions persist concerning the years he spent under the brutal authority of the Khmer Rouge. After 35 years of absence, he recently made contact with three brothers and a sister he had assumed were dead. Sayon will follow up when he returns to Cambodia where he will search for the truth about a family he barely remembers and come to terms with his own experiences as a witness to genocidal crimes. He will be able to appreciate his cultural heritage, looted by the Khmer Rouge – the magnificent temples of Angkor.

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