One of the few filmmakers to survive the Khmer Rouge regime, he was noted, alongside Dy Saveth, Yvon Hem, and Bun Yim, as connecting contemporary Cambodian cinema with its golden age of the 1960s and 1970s.
Mao Ayuth was born on 8 July 1944 in Srey Sonthor District, Kampong Cham Province, in what was then the French protectorate of Cambodia.
[1] While in France, Ayuth started developing what would become his first film, Bet Phnek, Hek Trung (បិទភ្នែក ហែកទ្រូង; "Close My Eyes, Open My Heart").
[2] During the Khmer Rouge regime, in which most artists and intellectuals were killed, Ayuth successfully hid his identity as a filmmaker by pretending to be a wedding photographer.
[7] At the time of his death, Ayuth was developing a government-funded television series documenting the film of Hun Sen, the Prime Minister of Cambodia.