The Sound of the Violin in My Lai
Directed byTran Van Thuy
Produced byMike Boehm, My Lai Peace Park Project
Release date
  • 1998 (1998)
Running time
32 minutes
CountryVietnam
LanguageVietnamese

The Sound of the Violin in My Lai (Vietnamese: Tiếng vĩ cầm ở Mỹ Lai) is a short film that examines the history and legacy of the My Lai massacre, an incident of the Vietnam War in which hundreds of Vietnamese civilians were massacred by U.S. Army soldiers. The film investigates the effects of the massacre, with the story centering on the return of American soldiers Hugh Thompson and Larry Colburn to My Lai on the 30th anniversary of the event.[1]

The film was commissioned by the Vietnamese government. It garnered director Tran Van Thuy the Best Documentary Prize at the Asia Pacific Film Festival in year 2000.

The violin referenced in the title is that of American Vietnam veteran and peace activist Roy Boehm.[2]

Plot

The film is about the massacre that occurred in Sơn Mỹ on the morning of March 16, 1968, when the US army killed 504 civilians within 4 hours. Despite its dark theme, the film conveys a message of hope and redemption - and the message of forgetting the past and looking towards the future. The main violinist is a US Air Force veteran, Mike Boehm.

Boehm returned to Vietnam in an attempt to atone for atrocities committed by the US military against the people of Sơn Mỹ. One of Boehm's pursuits is playing the violin - both for living people and for the souls of the dead.

The film was shown on Vietnamese television on the 30th anniversary of the massacre. On the same day, US Ambassador Pete Peterson and former President Bill Clinton apologized to the Vietnamese people for this massacre.

Awards

Year Ceremony Category Recipient Result Ref
1999 Asia-Pacific Film Festival 43rd time Best short film Tiếng vĩ cầm ở Mỹ Lai Golden crane [3][4][5]
12th Vietnam Film Festival Documentary Silver lotus [6][7]
Best Director Award Trần Văn Thủy Won
Vietnam Cinema Association Awards Documentary Tiếng vĩ cầm ở Mỹ Lai Giải A [8]

References

  1. ↑ Oliver, Kendrick. The My Lai Massacre in American History and Memory. 2006, page 277-8
  2. ↑ "MediaRights: Film: The Sound of the Violin in My Lai". Archived from the original on 2007-11-04. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
  3. ↑ Ngô Văn Phương 2005, p. 193.
  4. ↑ Bích Vân; Trần Thanh Giang; Nguyễn Đình Toán (2014-07-18). "Đạo diễn Trần Văn Thủy - những thước phim, những cuộc đời". Báo ảnh Việt Nam. Archived from the original on 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  5. ↑ Ngô, Văn Phương (2005). Vì một nước Việt Nam phát triển [For a developed Vietnam] (in Vietnamese). Ho Chi Minh City: General Publisher. p. 193. OCLC 61768089.
  6. ↑ Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngát 2005, p. 97.
  7. ↑ Thế Thái 1999, p. 86.
  8. ↑ "Trong nước VN". Văn nghệ Quân đội. 1999. p. 119. Archived from the original on 2023-09-16. Retrieved 2023-09-16.


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