CHILDREN OF THE MIST
(Những đứa trẻ trong sương)
Vietnam 2021 | 90 Min. | engl. subtitled
Thu, 18-May-23 07:30 PM
Hà Lệ Diễm
We are in a mountain village of the Hmong, members of an ethnic minority in northwest Vietnam. For three years, Hà Lệ Diễm has come here again and again, befriending the lively twelve-year-old Di and participating in the small struggles of her growing up. Events converge on the tension between tradition and the growing emancipation of a young generation that is beginning to look outwards.
During the New Year’s festival, it is customary for young men to kidnap the girls of their choice, often violently, often while they are still very young. Many girls are subsequently forced into marriage by their families. Di, too, is torn between first flirtations and resistance to an early foreign determination that abruptly ends her childhood and, most importantly, deprives her of any further educational opportunity. Diễm’s sensitive debut feature is astonishing in its revelation of this web of complex relationships. With impressive honesty, it maintains a balance between experiencing and conveying.
Hà Lệ Diễm, studied journalism in Hanoi journalism, earning her diploma in 2013. CHILDREN OF THE MIST is her first documentary to be supported by a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program and received the Best Director Award at IDFA in 2021.
Director, cinematography: Hà Lệ Diễm
Editor: Swann Dubus
Music: Nick Norton-Smith
Production: Swann Dubus for Varan Vietnam, Thao Tran Phuong
Distribution: CAT&Docs