OH, SAIGON
The story of the last Vietnamese family to be airlifted out of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.
Watch the Trailer
The Story of Oh, Saigon
logline
In 1975, filmmaker Doan Hoang and her family were airlifted out on last civilian helicopter leaving Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. 25 years later, she returned to uncover her family’s divided past, with family members behind enemy lines and a story of betrayal.
short synopsis
Airlifted out of Vietnam on April 30, 1975, Doan Hoang’s family was on the last civilian helicopter out of the country at the end of the Vietnam War. Twenty-five years later, she sets out to uncover their story. The film follows her family as they return to Vietnam after decades of exile, where her father, a former South Vietnamese major, meets his brothers again to confront their political differences: one was a Communist, the other a pacifist. Meanwhile, Hoang tries to reconcile her own difficult past with her half-sister, who was mistakenly separated from the family during the escape.
“I didn’t have any more
roads to choose: to be
captured or killed by the
communists, or to take
my family to a place that
wasn’t our home.”
- Nam, the father
Your father left and has done nothing for Vietnam. He never loved his country.
- Uncle Hai, Nam’s communist brother
“I don’t believe in war. I don’t have
any ideals. I don’t believe in
communism or capitalism, nothing.
But governments make you fight
for them, whether you want to or not.”
- Uncle Dzung, Nam’s younger
brother & former army sergeant
Our mother, she loves me, but she loves herself more than she loves me. She still loves me, she just loves herself more. I could have never left my own child.
- Van, the Half-Sister
