Post-genocide Cambodia — a country still riddled with corruption and fearful submission by its civilians living in trepidation with the knowledge that any deviating act holds the potential to produce horrific consequences. FINDING FACE demonstrates just this through the story of Tat Marina, a beautiful, young Cambodian woman whose life was forever altered after falling victim to an acid attack by the rage of a covetous wife whose husband, Cambodia’s Undersecretary of State, Svay Sitha, had fallen in love with her. Directors Patti Duncan and Skye Fitzgerald documents her story with honest, raw testimonials and footage from family members; and from Tat Marina herself, sequenced in a straightforward yet passionate manner. The tempered pace does not take away from the film’s storytelling, but rather attributes a sentiment of deepened gravity to an already emotional account of a woman who was robbed the opportunity for retribution towards the perpetrator of her attack, leaving her to her tattered body.

     

What is intriguing about FINDING FACE is the moderation in the film’s storytelling tactics that provide a subtle yet confident crescendo effect in its expressions of the film’s emotional content. An unspeakably abysmal attack that resulted in a once beautiful woman’s mangled image; frustration sprouting from a seemingly powerless hand at finding the perpetrator, who ultimately walked away without due punishment or reprimand; a disconcerting acceptance of a life that has been powerlessly changed. All of this was sequenced in the ebb and flow of calm but revealing interviews coupled with images of Tat Marina’s everyday life following her full recovery surgery and move to the United States, expressing tremendous gravity in its quiet intricacy. 

 

Images of Cambodia intertwined in the search for Tat Marina’s perpetrator further submerge viewers into an unspoken understanding of her helpless retreat to the United States, where she spent years recovering, physically and emotionally, along with her family’s poignant determination in bringing justice to the plight that took over Tat Marina’s being. FINDING FACE moves quietly with a paced temperament, fusing images of anguish with prevailing sentiments of hope into one gem of a documentary.