Introduction: Uriel Levi, journalist, “Davar”

This beautiful film is about a traditional dance form that almost went extinct during one of the darkest periods in recent history. As a child, Chea Samy lived in the royal palace in Cambodia, where she was nurtured and became a gifted dancer. She lovingly raised her husband’s younger brother, who also grew up in the palace, as if he were her own son. That boy grew up to become the tyrant Pol Pot, who in the 1970s led the Khmer Rouge movement that carried out the genocide of a quarter of Cambodia’s population, including most of its cultural figures.

Samy survived forced labor and threats to her life, and with the liberation of Cambodia, became the country’s only teacher of traditional dance. Thanks to her work, the art form survived and was passed on to subsequent generations. Using spectacular photography, the film depicts breathtaking dance sequences and archival footage of Chea Samy herself. Through it we discover a world of beauty, tenderness, and an extraordinary art form that was almost wiped out amid the devastating war in Cambodia.