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Part of the Faut Pas Rever (No Need to Dream) series of travel documentaries, the programme was watched by an audience of millions, who followed journalist Laurent Bignolas as he travelled from HCM City to Hue and then north to Ha Noi and the border with China.
The documentary was a collage of seven separate reports that programme makers claim give audiences an all-embracing insight into the country "that was destroyed by war, but is looking to the future and changing every hour...."
The series includes interviews with overseas Vietnamese who have returned home, and who have, by their industry, helped to reinvigorate the domestic economy.
In one report viewers were taken to Quan Do Village, in Bac Ninh Province, whose residents make their living from scrap iron.
Also show during the programmes is a short ballet entitled Secherese et la Pluie (Drought and Rain) by Ea Sola, which depicts the dark days during the American War.
"It's the story of memory, memory of the war in Viet Nam. It's also the story of women," Ea Sola says.
Images of war martyrs - men and women - and of women working in paddy fields are shown. Ea Sola invited a number of elderly female labourers, aged 50 to 76, to take part in the ballet.
Audiences are also invited to share in the delights of the Red Dao New Year festival.
The camera lens reveals just how much Vietnam has changed over the last few decades. But one thing remains constant - the rural Vietnamese seem incapable of shacking off the shackles of poverty.
Arnaud Blin and Daniel Brosset movingly capture this poverty, without mawkishness, when they visit a fishing village on the Huong River in Hue City, who residents literally scrape a living from the riverbed.
"Not many people pay attention to them. However, they are the life and the soul of the Huong River. Everyday, whatever the weather, they row their sampans (for them, it's both a house and a place of work) across the river to dredge sand from the river bottom [to sell]. It is difficult work and dangerous, which every member of the family takes part in," a female presenter tells viewers.
"It is a job that brings them a little to eat each day. More than 10,000 people live here on the water. All have a dream: to earn enough money to send their children to school."
A number of French viewers were also interviewed. One, Claude Le Palud, said: "Today is a big day for my mother. Tonight she will watch a show about Vietnam that she had waited to see for so long."
After watching the documentary, Eva Moreau, said: "The programme was so interesting. I saw a very beautiful Vietnam. I love very much the dance by Ea Sola. Those old women were wonderful. They lived through years of war and it's true that we have to connect the past with the present to comprehend the future better. I have dreamt of Viet Nam for so long without having a chance to set foot there."
Joseph Robino, was also full of praise for the programme makers. "It's an extraordinary bit of reporting. I felt a great happiness to see again some of the places I've been to in Vietnam. I was touched to see Dr Lan, whom I've met several times in Hue, being interviewed about the sampan [people]. I am sad that I cannot go back to Vietnam this year. I'll go next year.
This article first appeared on www.vietnamnews.vnanet.vn
July 16, 2008
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