Vaan Nguyen’s story is the result of one of those quirks of history that trumps fiction. Her parents were Vietnamese refugees who fled the country after the fall of Saigon, and in 1979 were among a group of 200 “boat people” granted permanent refuge in Israel. Hanmoi Nguyen desires to return to his village, reclaim his ancestral land and confront the man who forced him to flee. His daughter Vaan has grown up in Israel, speaking Hebrew and living as an Israeli – and yet she is alienated from Israeli society and resents being treated as a cultural
curio.

When the opportunity arises for her to travel back to Vietnam with her father in an attempt to determine the fate of some land that used to belong to his family, Vaan jumps at the chance. She bids a less-than-fond farewell and sets off with her father, hoping to find a new life – and a sense of belonging – in a land she barely knows.

Balancing surreal archival footage of Vietnamese refugees being assimilated into Israeli culture with scenes of the affection and conflict between Hanmoi’s four other daughters, The Journey of Vaan Nguyen conveys the emotional tolls that war and displacement inflicts upon individuals. As the family’s story unfolds through the poetic voices and writings of father and daughter, their personal journeys lead them to the most unexpected places, and some surprising discoveries.

Filmmaker Duki Dror is an Israeli of Iraqi ethnicity. The Journey of Vaan Nguyen continues his interests in examining the social and ethnic dilemmas of contemporary Israel, and in exploring the subtle, yet profound complexities of maintaining cultural identity in an increasingly interconnected world.

SCREENS WITH

WELCOME HOME
Bill Giannakakis, New Zealand, 14 minutes
Dimitris, a Greek immigrant who has called New Zealand home for over fifty years, is forced to deal with a fellow Greek immigrant who can’t seem to accept that the world is changing.