vietnam. birth of a nation

One century ago, Vietnam was not an independent nation, but a part of the French colonial empire. From the harbour of Saigon ships sailed to France loaded with tea, coffee and caoutchouc, while at school young Vietnamese were taught about their “Gaulois” ancestors. This is the starting point of “Vietnam. The Birth of a Nation”, a documentary series that follows the journey of the Vietnamese through war and peace, reaching until the present day. The team had unprecedented access to Vietnamese archives, conducting a multi-year research across 450 films – part of them never shown outside Vietnam. Thanks to this immense endeavour and the personal stories of the eyewitnesses, this series looks at the history of this war-torn country from a new perspective: that of Vietnamese women and men.

Among them are a member of the royal family, the son of the communist leader Le Duan, the minister of information of the US-allied government, soldiers from both the North and the South, Buddhists and Catholics, “Viet Cong” and “boat people.” The series also benefits from the contributions of leading historians, belonging to the first generation of researchers who worked at the Vietnamese archives. Filmed in Vietnam and along the routes of the Vietnamese diaspora, across three continents and six countries, the series provides a new understanding of this nation that fought for its freedom, became the epicenter of the Cold War and is still dealing with the aftermath of such a dramatic past. 50 years after the end of the war, there has not been an open dialogue among Vietnamese who fought on opposite sides and wounds are still open. This series offers the opportunity to discover dreams, memories and traumas on both sides and provide a memorable lesson to understand the conflicts of today.