SYNOPSIS
Children of the Mist follows Di, a 12-year-old H’Mông girl, on her journey of growing up amid the clash between traditional and modern cultures. The film portrays the innocent childhood of the girl, her childhood games related to the custom of “bride kidnapping,” and then her harsh confrontation when she becomes a victim of this tradition, leading to a broken childhood and the challenges of maturation. This documentary, directed by Hà Lệ Diễm, has been acclaimed for its authentic, respectful portrayal of H’Mông culture and the complex realities faced by indigenous communities in Sa Pa. It was recognized among the top documentary films shortlisted for the Oscars.
CREDIT
Director: Hà Lệ Diễm
Hà Lệ Diễm began her documentary career after participating in Varan Vietnam’s documentary film workshop in 2016. She directed the independent documentary “Những đứa trẻ trong sương” (Children of the Mist), which gained international recognition, including becoming the first Vietnamese documentary shortlisted for the Oscars’ top 15 in 2023. She has received numerous awards such as the Best Director and Golden Lotus Award at the Vietnam Film Festival. Her work is praised for its authentic portrayal of ethnic minority life and social issues in Vietnam.
Genre: Documentary
Production: Trần Phương Thảo & Swann Dubus
Cinematography: Hà Lệ Diễm
Editing: Swann Dubus
Arards:
✦ Best Asian Film Award at the Da Nang Asian Film Festival (2023).
✦ Best Director Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2021.
✦ Best First Feature Documentary at IDFA 2021.
✦ Clarens Award for humanitarian documentary at the International Cinéma du Réel Festival (France).
✦ Best International Film Award at the TEL AVIV International Film Festival (Israel) 2022.
✦ The first Vietnamese documentary shortlisted in the Top 15 for the Best Documentary Feature category of the 2023 Oscars.
CLIPS
PHOTOS
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How the land given by the government to the farmers near Da Nang is taken back by the local authorities who give them to foreign investors to build tourist complexes and golf courses.
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Thien’s museum
Thien, Da Nang’s war museum historian, carries out research in the area, seeking for survivors, peasants, resistance movement fighters. He collects all the traces of daily life dating back from that time: stories, photographs, archives and objects. Born after the war, Tian discovers the reality of those facets of history. In an anti-war spirit, his work speaks for peace, contributing to preserve collective memory.
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March’s Mist
The massacre carried out by the American Army against the civilian population of My Lai left 500 dead and two survivors, Nam and Lien, aged 5 and 3 years old at the time. Today they both work at the My Lai Museum, he as a caretaker, she as a cleaner. Every day, Lien cleans the objects, photos and reconstructed scenes that evoke the nightmare. Nam tells us that, when he is on duty at night, he often sees apparitions, phantoms which appear and cross through the cemetery and the gardens of the Muse
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Small blessings
A young couple work on the river Han at Da Nang every day as fisher people. They had to leave the countryside and their children because the river fishing there was no longer profitable. They only go back home rarely and briefly get to see their three children who are being brought up by their grandmother. But they dream of just one thing: to be able to live together as a family and to help their children succeed with their studies. But to do that, you need money!
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