Synopsis
Di is a 12-year-old girl living in a village lost in the mist of the Northwest Vietnamese mountains. She belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority where women get married very young, enduring the controversial tradition of “bride-kidnapping”. By the time Di enters puberty, her personality has changed drastically. The carefree little girl has turned into an impetuous, hypersensitive teenager constantly arguing with her mother who is trying to keep her away from reckless relationships that she is not mature enough to handle. On the Lunar New Year's Eve, when Di's parents come back home after celebrating, the house is silent: Di has disappeared.
Vietnam
2021
92 minutes
Hmong, Vietnamese with Arabic subtitles
Director: HÀ Lệ Diễm
Producers: TRẦN Phương Thảo & Swann DUBUS
Production Company: Varan Vietnam
Cinematography: HÀ Lệ Diễm
Editing: Swann Dubus
International Sales: CAT&Docs
Awards: Cinéma du Réel 2022 | Winner: Clarens Prize for Humanist Documentary Filmmaking
Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 2021 | Winner: Best Directing (International)
Visions du Réel 2022 | Winner: Perception Change Project Award
Munich International Documentary Festival 2022 | Winner: DOK.fest Award of SOS-Kinderdörfer weltweit
HÀ Lệ Diễm was born in 1991 in Tay, an ethnic minority group living in the mountains of Northeast Vietnam. She left her hometown to study journalism at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi, where she graduated in 2013. Children of the Mist is her first feature documentary film project. She is a “Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Grantee.”