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Passes the Bechdel test

First They Killed My Father

2017. Directed by Angelina Jolie, written by Loung Ung and Angelina Jolie.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    3 women characters. 4 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 5 scenes out of 199.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

Poster for First They Killed My Father

The film

In the 1970's, a middle-class Cambodian girl sees her family's lives turning upside-down when the Khmer Rouge invades Cambodia. They leave their comfortable apartment and lifestyle to live in a primitive work camp. When her father, a former officer, is killed, the family splits to survive.

Released
15 Sep 2017
Genres
Biography, Drama, History
Rated
TV-MA
IMDb
7.2 / 10
Metascore
72 / 100
Awards
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 9 wins & 29 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Loung 25 lines, woman
  2. Pa 24 lines, man
  3. Ma 20 lines, woman
  4. Met Srei 11 lines, woman
  5. Kim 7 lines, man
  6. Met Bong 6 lines, woman
  7. All 5 lines
  8. Chou 5 lines, woman
  9. Ro Leap Khmer Rouge 4 lines
  10. Uncle Leang 4 lines, man
Full cast, 13 people
  • Sareum Srey Moch as Loung
  • Phoeung Kompheak as Pa
  • Sveng Socheata as Ma
  • Mun Kimhak as Kim
  • Heng Dara as Meng
  • Khoun Sothea as Khouy
  • Sarun Nika as Geak
  • Run Malyna as Chaou
  • Oun Srey Neang as Keav
  • Horm Chhora
  • Nout Sophal
  • Tharoth Sam as Khmer Rouge Leader
  • Rous Mony

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 24% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 199

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 514
6 to 1000
11 to 1560
16 to 2010
21 to 2503
26 to 3067
31 to 3500
36 to 4022
41 to 4524
46 to 5000
51 to 5511
56 to 6043
61 to 6510
66 to 7000
71 to 7500
76 to 8011
81 to 8541
86 to 9000
91 to 9502
96 to 10020
101 to 10550
106 to 11067
111 to 11510
116 to 12013
121 to 125100
126 to 13060
131 to 13510
136 to 14030
141 to 14530
146 to 15000
151 to 15530
156 to 16010
161 to 16520
166 to 17070
171 to 17511
176 to 18000
181 to 18500
186 to 19000
191 to 19500
196 to 19911

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
CHOU: Let’s go CHOU: What are you doing? LOUNG: Trying to loosen the body to float down stream. LOUNG: On three.
LOUNG: What happens when people die? CHOU: First they sleep peacefully not knowing they are dead. They sleep for three days and then on the third day they wake up. That’s when they re… LOUNG: When will they come back? CHOU: I don’t know.
LOUNG: I’m going to kill them one day. LOUNG: You don’t think I can? I can. CHOU: I don’t want you to. I don’t want anyone to kill anyone.
MET BONG: Comrade, what are you doing here? LOUNG: Met Bong, my sister and I are orphans looking for a place to live. MET BONG: How old are you? LOUNG: I am seven. She is ten.
MET SREI: Where have you been? LOUNG: I went to see my sister. MET SREI: And stayed there for three days? LOUNG: I don’t know. I don’t know where I was.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 67 are women's.

82 lines from women, 40 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

3 women and 4 men in the cast. 4 women and 2 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 161. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 9 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 61% of the words (784), men 39% (506). Women have 67% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

6 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 37% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Angelina Jolie (woman)
Written by
Angelina Jolie (woman), Loung Ung (woman)
Produced by
Rithy Panh (man), Angelina Jolie (woman), Ted Sarandos (man), Michael Vieira (man), Maddox Jolie (man)
Shot by
Anthony Dod Mantle (man)
Edited by
Patricia Rommel (woman), Xavier Box (gender not listed)
Music by
Marco Beltrami (man)
Production design by
Tom Brown (man)
Costumes by
Ellen Mirojnick (woman)
Cast by
Sreyra In (gender not listed)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    4 women, 7 men, 2 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 8 men, 2 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    3 women, 1 men, 3 not listed

  • Art

    2 women, 4 men

  • Writing

    3 women, 0 men

  • Camera

    0 women, 2 men

  • Other crew

    0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: the money

What it cost and made, where TMDB lists it.

Budget
$24 million
Box office
Not listed

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 199 scenes and 161 lines of dialogue. How the test works

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