CinemaSerf

This is quite a poignant wartime drama that’s told largely from the perspective of the young “Hung” (Phi Lan). With his father away at the war, he lives with his little sister “Xuan” (Huynh Cazenas) and their ailing mother (Xuan Ha) but with the flames of war getting ever closer, their lives are becoming more dangerous. For safety, they relocate to their cousins, but they don’t really have any interest in this little family, and when the mum finally succumbs to her illness, it falls to the youngster to look after his sister as best he can. He tries all manner of jobs from collecting old newspapers to shining shoes, but in the end he cannot cope alone and so puts “Xuan” under the kindly care of the local French hospital. His determination to survive introduces him to people on both sides of the conflict, and his unique position as a child allows him to provide us with a few fly-on-the-wall observations of those convinced that they are correct. He sees the prevailing, contrasting, dogmas at work and soon realises that neither have much regard for him nor his sister. It seems the only likelihood of any kind of salvation will come if they can be reunited with their father. On that front, we are taken to meet a man who is, indeed, involved on the war - but who is also unaware of his family’s whereabouts and their predicament. The production looks great and the photography of Vietnam, and of their agrarian lives within it, is captivating. There is an impressive performance here from the young Phi Lan as he marries the roles of stoic and loving father-figure with savvy street-urchin really quite naturally. This feature shows us the indiscriminate nature of warfare and at how frequently it impacts on those least equipped to deal with it or it’s aftermath without sensation or gore, but from these most innocent of eyes and it does deliver well.