On the occasion of the 13th Waterloo Historical Film Festival, secondary schools in the region are invited to discover "The Gate", a film by Régis Wargnier, Oscar-winning director of Indochine. The screening will be followed by a special meeting with Régis Wargnier, who will answer questions from the students. His testimony as a filmmaker, having filmed in Cambodia with the support of the great documentary filmmaker Rithy Panh, will provide an opportunity to discuss historical issues as well as directing choices and the role of cinema in the transmission of history. Adapted from the book Le Portail by ethnologist François Bizot, the film plunges us into Cambodia in the 1970s. Captured by the Khmer Rouge, Bizot must convince his jailer, Douch – a young communist revolutionary who soon becomes an executioner – of his innocence. This face-to-face encounter sheds light on both the relentless mechanics of ideologies and the fragility of human beings in the face of history. The film questions how an ideal of justice can turn into a system of terror, and how men, in the name of an ideal, come to justify violence and purges as a ‘necessary evil’. It also raises the question of individual responsibility in the face of hierarchy, with Douch claiming to ‘only be obeying orders’. These are all angles that still resonate today and will invite students to reflect on ideological excesses, the weight of moral conscience and ways to prevent history from repeating itself. Registration for schools at schools@wahff.be.