 In addition to directing the film, she co-wrote the screenplay with her longtime friend Loung Ung, whose memoirs about the regime's child labor camps served as its source material.Intended primarily for a Cambodian audience, the film was produced directly for Netflix, which allowed for the use of an exclusively Khmer cast and script.Labeling Jolie as a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker", Rafer Guzmán of "Newsday" commended her for "convincingly depict[ing] the illogical hell of the Khmer Rouge era".