Hollywood star Angelina Jolie honoured by King of Cambodia

Angelina Jolie has been honoured by the King of Cambodia as she visited the country for the premiere of her film First They Killed My Father.

The Hollywood actress was accompanied by her six children as she greeted King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia at the opening ceremony of the memoir based movie, which chronicles the horrors of the Khmer Rouge on Saturday (18 February).

Wearing a full-length, backless, pink chiffon gown, the 41-year-old bowed before the King as she accepted the honour from his highness.

Survivors of the communist regime were among some 1,500 people invited to the debut screening.

The family were also invited to the royal residence in the country's Siem Reap province for a private audience with the King.

With photos capturing the moment, the actress's teenage son Maddox, who was adopted in 2002 from an orphanage in Cambodia's Battambanghail, is seen bowing with hands folded before the ruler.

Earlier Jolie and her children Maddox, 15, Pax, 13, Zahara, 12, Shiloh, 10 and eight-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne attended a free public screening of the film.

Surrounded by her children, the Hollywood star was beaming as she prepared to unveil her latest directorial project which recounts the war time experiences of Angelina's friend and former refuge Cambodian Loung Un as a young child.

Jolie, who shares a deep affinity with the Cambodian people through her adopted son Maddox, said the film was borne of her desire to better understand the experiences of her birth son's parents.

"I wanted to focus not just on the war but on the love of family and on the beauty of the country and in fact I wanted to understand what my son's birth parents may have gone through.

"And I wanted to know him better and I wanted to know this country better," she said.

"He was the one who just called it and said he was ready and that he wanted to work on it, which he did. He read the script, helped with notes, and was in the production meetings," Jolie told The Guardian.

"It's the first time there's something on this size about this war in this country," she explained. "I feel like nobody is here for themselves and everybody here to do any job is here to put something forward and help their country speak."

The première will be followed by screenings across Cambodia, some seven months before the film is released to a global audience on Netflix.

The American actress, who has been granted Cambodian citizenship, has been travelling around Cambodia ahead of the film's release. It's the actress's first official public appearance since her high-profile split last year from Brad Pitt, 53 in September.

The former Hollywood couple have been embroiled in a bitter custody battle over their children. The actor is requesting to share joint physical and legal custody with Jolie, who wants sole physical custody with Pitt receiving scheduled visits.

The pair are due back in court this month for a hearing in the ongoing case, Mail Online reports.