Angelina Jolie To Direct A Movie In Cambodia With Her Son Maddox

Angelina Jolie has signed with Netflix to direct a movie in Cambodia about children caught up with the Khmer Rouge regime — based on the true story of a child soldier, Loung Ung, who will co-write the script from her book First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.

Jolie has a particular connection with Cambodia since the actress adopted her son Maddox in the country in 2002. Maddox will be involved in the movie’s production process.

Jolie also told the press she’s been “deeply affected” by the book. She admitted the film will be “hard to watch.” In her book, Loung Ung tells her own story, from leaving her house in Phnom Penh in 1975 to arriving at forced labor camps, where she faced exhaustion, violence and hunger. The book was published in 2000. “Angelina and I met in 2001 in Cambodia, and immediately, I trusted Angelina’s heart,” said Ung.

“It deepened forever my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it,” Jolie added. “And it helped me draw closer still to the people of Cambodia, my son’s homeland.”

The movie is set to premiere on Netflix in 2016, and will be released on Netflix worldwide — an important condition for Jolie. It will be the fifth movie she’s directed.