Cambodia's tragic past overshadows our view of a beautiful and mysterious land. This Saturday the Times gives you a DVD of Bruce Robinson's Oscar-winning film The Killing Fields which tells the story of one man's bid for survival under Pol Pot's murderous regime.

To enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the film we have collected a range of key Times news and travel pieces which show some other aspects of this once benighted and still misunderstood country.

One of the principal characters in the film is Sunday Times journalist Jon Swain, played by Julian Sands. Jon is still a foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times, most recently reporting from Baghdad.

The Killing Fields: Movie trivia from IMDB :

Supporting actor Spalding Gray wrote a monologue about his experiences filming this movie, which was later filmed in 1987 as Swimming to Cambodia.

Haing S. Ngor became the first Southeast Asian (and the first Buddhist) to win an Academy Award in an acting role.

The Coke factory in the movie was originally supposed to be a Pepsi factory, but Pepsi declined to be featured in the movie.

At the Oscars, when Haing S. Ngor won the Oscar for best supporting actor, he walked onto the stage with his 15-year-old niece. Upon walking up to the stage, John Malkovich jokingly shouted something in Cambodian to him which shocked his niece and made Haing Ngor laugh. He shouted, "The award's mine, a**hole!" In Haing Ngor's autobiography, he describes John Malkovich's keen interest in learning Cambodian swear words.