Young Vietnamese in Czech Republic make film about family value

Duong Viet Duc, the director and a main character in the film, and his brother have returned to Vietnam to explore the life in the fatherland

They hope that the films will encourage young overseas Vietnamese to turn their hearts to the homeland.

The film is about the differences in lifestyle of two generations in a Vietnamese family in the Czech Republic and ways to resolve the contradictions.

The two sons of a man, who owns a grocery store, have a lot of opportunities to access Western culture right from a young age.

They grew up in a Western environment and developed differences from their father, Duong Van Hai, in terms of lifestyle and ways of thinking.

Mr. Hai says with the hard life of Vietnamese in the Czech Republic 2 decades ago, they did not have enough material conditions to look after their children properly and this has resulted in differences between generations.

Hai said, “The elderly always retain Vietnamese culture in their heart but Vietnamese culture is now becoming faded in younger generation. The family and community play an important role in encouraging the preservation of Vietnamese culture.”

There is a big gap between generations in the family. The father wants to maintain the principles of traditional culture through family meals and practicing Vietnamese.

Meanwhile, his children prefer to take part in outdoor activities and enjoy life in a western society.

After failed attempts, the father decided to send the children to Vietnam to experience life in the homeland. Things were hard for the two young boys on their first days in Vietnam.

Everything is different, from the ways of greeting, the eating and daily communication. They even had to get up early to do gardening, and take part in Vietnamese classes to be able to communicate with the others.

The longer they live in Vietnam, the more they understand about the culture, as well as the value of family and homeland that they cannot lose.

Duong Viet Duc, the director and a main character in the film, said a trip back to Vietnam helped him understand the differences between him and his father, making him highly appreciate of the love and advice that his father gave him.

Duc said, “The traditional value of family is always honored in my family. I don’t want to lose my roots. Though I do not live in Vietnam, I think I still have the opportunity to return to the homeland to look for and compensate for what I have lost.”

Launched in 2014, the film was highly appreciated by the Vietnamese community and Czech people. The film was shown at film festivals in the US, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, and Luxembourg.

The film was highly appreciated for its meaningful message of family values and reminding young Vietnamese generation not to forget their origins.

Jan Syrucek, the film’s producer, said it was the positive reviews from Vietnamese and Czech audiences that inspired the film producers to produce the next parts.

He said this is an interesting film about family values, and that the Czech people really want to understand more about Vietnamese culture through the Vietnamese community living there.

“There are thousands of Vietnamese people living in the Czech Republic but we don’t know much about their lives. Many Vietnamese run shops here and they work all day, we don’t know much about them. The younger generation lives quite differently from their predecessors. The film somehow reflects the lives of Vietnamese people in our country,” he said.

The next film is expected to be finished early next year and will launch several months later./.

Source: VOV5