← Asia Insight · Season 6

Catching the Children: Cambodia's Life-Changing Circus

S6 · E30 · 06 Oct 2017 · 28 min

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The city of Siem Reap is a major tourist destination, acting as the gateway to the Angkor Wat temple. It is also home to a very different kind of spectacle: a circus troupe that performs gravity-defying stories from Cambodian history and culture. The performers, who come from underprivileged backgrounds, were trained at Phare Ponleu Selpak, an art school co-founded by Khuon Det. In this episode we trace Det's extraordinary story, from Thai refugee camp to performing arts director - and some of the flying acrobats he has helped to lift out of poverty.