27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival: “Children of the Dust”: Great Expectations of a Vietnamese Amerasian Cultural Orphan

The 27^th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival runs until 16March2025.

Ngo Thanh Sang is one of thousands of Amerasian children left behind in Vietnam as South Vietnam finally collapsed in 1975 with Americans beating a hasty retreat. Sang’s father was an American soldier in Vietnam serving a 1966—67 tour of duty. The result of his relationship with a South Vietnamese woman was the birth of Sang. A moment of pleasure became a lifetime of suffering for Sang.

Through a DNA matching programme Sang locates his father in the United States. He must decide to take advantage of an American reunification programme covering his costs of travel so he can relocate there but his move must be permanent and will not include his grandchild and daughter, at least initially.

Amerasian children in Vietnam suffered hardship and prejudice. Sang’s mother and extended family “could not afford” to raise him resulting in his working in a poultry farm where he was beaten. Sang is illiterate. He works at construction sites and lives in very modest accommodations with his wife caring for his grandchild abandoned by his drug addict daughter.

A long distance over the phone relationship is established with his gravely ill father, his two brothers and sisters and appears warm. As Sang has experienced dysfunctionality in Vietnam when he travels alone to the United States he walks into the dysfunctional family of his father. His father is divorced having taken up with another woman leaving his wife and children behind. His daughter complains about the lack of affection of her father and the father complains of his abandoned childhood.

Not speaking English Sang feels lonely and confused about his choice. He had such great expectations to finally meet his father but as in Vietnam and in the United States he is “caught in the middle” and not entirely accepted by both cultures.

Sang muses about returning home thinking that he feels as if he in the same place whether in Vietnam or the United States. His only home is his family which by embracing it is the only way he can move forward. Which family is he referring to or is he referring to both and will he return to Vietnam?

A Vietnamese, Polish, Swedish, Czech Republic and Qatar production directed by Weronika Mliczewska.

RKS 2025 Documentary Film Rating 82/100. World premier was at the 27^th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival.