It's an education suitable for both children ready to see the world's shadows, and for adults who may still not comprehend Southeast Asian history beyond the Vietnam War.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Do has created a tense, heartbreaking ode to a tragic time; a deeply personal story, superbly visualized.
The New York Times by Glenn Kenny
Do’s tale is resolutely earthbound. He uses animation as an interrogation into the practice of fictional depiction derived from actual atrocities.
The Hollywood Reporter by Jordan Mintzer
Despite some narrative cliches, the painstaking way that the movie documents a very dark period in Cambodian history is a noteworthy achievement.
Slant Magazine by Keith Watson
There are hints that the film will scale itself to the broader historical context of this era, but the screenplay never elaborates on the ethnic strife the undergirds the Cambodian genocide.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Funan is a stunning piece of animation in which the beauty of the visuals and the horror of the situation are inextricably intertwined.
RogerEbert.com by Matt Zoller Seitz
Funan is structured as a series of carefully choreographed set pieces in which things go from bad to worse to unimaginably awful.
The last half hour of Funan is so heavy that the film effectively plays more as tragedy than as triumph, all the more impactful for being true.
The director translates the overwhelming concept of genocide into intimate, daily struggles, and the horror is indisputable, and inescapable; if you ever thought such a historical horror was “unthinkable,” you’ll think again.