Hourt
Hourt was Aki Ra’s wife, but you barely see her in Aki Ra’s Boys. She wasn’t too keen about being in the limelight – in one scene, she’s helping to clean some newly defused landmines. In another, she’s splashing around in a lake, having a ball with the kids, urging them to swim faster, jump...
Found!
Our search is over. We’ve tracked her down: Ow Wei Yi, the talented young artist behind a very special poster. We love the way she captured Boreak’s wide grin, Vannak’s serious smile. Love the fact that she remembered to put mud on Boreak’s feet. Wei Yi’s poster was part of a publicity campaign for a...
Unexpected News
Aki Ra’s Landmines Museum isn’t exactly easy to find. It’s tucked somewhere behind the Angkor Wat Temple, off a beaten track, past a ramshackle village that’s better known to locals as Siem Reap’s low-end red light district, and down some truly bumpy roads. Yet, busloads of tourists arrive everyday. Eager volunteers show up regularly to...
Return to the Landmine Museum
Vannak greeted us with a cheeky grin. Poiy flaunted his new nose ring. And Aki Ra showed us the five rockets and two bombs he’d picked up and defused just hours before we arrived. Five rockets and two bombs. Geesh. We were in Siem Reap to give the kids a sneak preview of Aki Ra’s...
Cool to be in School
Aki Ra and his wife, Hourt, make it seem so very easy. Visitors to the Landmine Museum often talk about how happy their two young sons and 18 adopted children look, how much the kids enjoy meeting new people and how very confident they appear. In truth, running the Museum is a tough, tough job....
Afternoon in a Minefield
Rural Cambodia is dotted with little red signs like this: Signs that mar the landscape and remind us that lurking beneath the country’s verdant green fields are a gazillion landmines. Ugly little buggers. Waiting. To kill. We got to know Aki Ra in one of these minefields. It wasn’t exactly on our to-do list. We’d...
Two Weeks in Cambodia
Meet Boreak and Vannak. We spent the last two weeks filming and getting to know them in Cambodia. You’d never find a more different pair of boys – Boreak is moody, sensitive, at times hyperactive, and when he feels like it, a mischieveous bundle of energy.Vannak, on the otherhand, is quiet, thoughtful, studious and ever...
