Nach Chauv returns to Cambodia to search for answers about childhood

Nach Chauv

Nov 13, 2011
By MEGAN SCHMIDT
The Holland Sentinel (Holland, Michigan, USA)

Holland — Nach Chauv was 9 years old when he traveled on foot through miles of mine fields, escaping Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Bandits and soldiers lurked, and the sound of land mines blasted around him during the journey through the jungle to Thailand.

Months later, he and his brother were on a plane to be reunited with their mother in Holland. Chauv has never been back.

On Nov. 20, however, he will return to Cambodia with a film crew in tow to document his search for answers to lingering questions about his childhood and his father. The project is titled “The Search.”

“My biggest question is if my father passed away of a natural cause, or was it something else?” said Chauv, who goes by Kyle.

Joining him will be director Jeff Nichols, screenwriter Michael Walton and creative/fundraising consultant Steven Nicolet. All are from Holland.

The crew will spend 20 days visiting the capital, Chauv’s birthplace, in the Battambang province, the Tuol Sleng torture prison museum and more.

The East Saugatuck Christian Reformed Church brought 10-year-old Chauv and his brother to the U.S. where other family members already were waiting.

It was Chauv’s final destination after being ripped away from his family several times during childhood under the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s communist party, intended to turn the country into a pre-industrialized, rural society where economic class didn’t exist. People were forced from cities to do agricultural work in the country. Money was abolished, private property seized and citizens were treated like prisoners. Many of the two million people who died under the regime were murdered for being considered traitors.

When he was 5 years old, Chauv and his brother were sent to a labor camp, where, he said, authorities tried to brainwash the children.

“On the weekend, we were able to go back home,” he said. “We were taught to spy on our parents for the government.”

After the boys spent four years in the camp, the Khmer Rouge regime lost power.

For their safety, Chauv and his brother were adopted by a Thai family, whom they stayed with until emigrating to the U.S.

Chauv isn’t certain his own presumed birth date or age are correct, he said.

Chauv went on to graduate from Holland High School. He started his career at Haworth 17 years ago and recently finished a bachelor’s program in public administration at Grand Valley State University.

He believes his father died in 1975, possibly of illness, but the details are murky.

The family had been split up, and saw little of each other until one day news arrived his father was dead.

Finding the paper trail to these answers has been difficult, Chauv said.

Chauv’s brother previously found a grave site bearing their father’s name. Chauv hopes to get a bone sample from the body for DNA testing, he said.

Otherwise, the film crew will be scouring the community to see if anyone remembers the family from that turbulent era.

While there, the team will blog about their experiences. Two project contributors — Susan Vanderbilt and Matt Cushman — will stay behind to focus on art and outreach aspects of the documentary.

There is no telling what video footage they will capture, but the group plans to shop around the documentary to a number of film festivals, project member Steven Nicolet said.

Some memories are hazy, but Chauv remembers some of the events of his childhood very clearly — especially that dangerous journey to Thailand.

He remembers clutching tightly to a Mickey Mouse watch his brother gave him, trying to keep it from the bandits.

“I tried to hide it, but they still took it,” he said.

By filming “The Search,” Chauv said, ‘”it’s kind of like I’m going back to get that watch.”