Little Girl from Hanoi

Whereas American pictures made during the Vietnam War concentrated on gung-ho heroics, government-sponsored Vietnamese films like Vinh Linh Steel Rampart dealt with the desperate Communist resistance. However, Nguyen Hai Ninh's drama focuses on the human cost of the conflict, as a 12-year-old girl goes looking for her family during the Christmas air raids on Hanoi, only to meet a kindly soldier, to whom she confides her memories of happier times. As all Vietnamese pictures were made in black and white until the mid-1980s, the action has a newsreel feel to it, which reinforces its propaganda value.