Bophana: iconographie, récit et creuset de mémorie

As happens with other stories of mass violence, the memory of the Cambodian genocide has crystallized into symbols, either narratives or icons. One of them is Hout Bophana, whose love letters to her husband were at the core of her ordeal under the Khmer Rogue. This article follows Bophana’s story and iconography from 1985, when journalist Elizabeth Becker unearthed her file at the Tuol Sleng archives, until now, when, thanks particularly to film director Rithy Panh, Bophana has become a transnational icon for both grief and resistance.