The American journalist, Sydney Schanberg, is played by Sam Waterston, and his Cambodian counterpart, Dith Pran, is played by Haing S. Ngor. The two men work for the New York Times, reporting on the political and social turmoil in Cambodia during the early 1970s, as the country was caught up in the Vietnam War and the civil war between the government forces and the communist Khmer Rouge.
After the Khmer Rouge takes over Phnom Penh in April 1975, Schanberg and Pran continue to work together, but soon become caught up in the violence and chaos of the regime's radical social and economic policies, which included forced labor, re-education camps, and mass executions of perceived enemies. Schanberg manages to escape from the country with the help of his paper, but Pran is left behind and must find a way to survive in the killing fields of rural Cambodia.
The movie is a harrowing depiction of the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime, and the courage and endurance of those who survived. It won three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Ngor, who himself was a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and later became an advocate for human rights and the recognition of their victims.