Children of the Mist

The acclaimed debut feature by Vietnamese director Hà Lệ Diễm became one of the year’s most talked-about documentaries, invited to more than thirty major festivals worldwide. Filmed over four years, it follows Di, a 14-year-old Hmong girl, from a carefree childhood into adolescence.

Like any teenage girl, Di faces questions of family income, schooling and first love — but she must also live with the threat of “bride kidnapping”, a custom still practised in her village. On Lunar New Year’s Eve she disappears for a night, and her parents understand at once that her childhood is over and that the fate she feared most has arrived early. Forced to grow up overnight, Di confronts the hard realities of the adult world.