One of the most influential and controversial photographs of all times fuels Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom. The film by Kim Nguyen (War Witch, Two Lovers and a Bear) explores the family histories connected by Eddie Adams’ iconic “Saigon Execution” photograph, which helped steer public opinion of the war in Vietnam. POV has the first look at the trailer for Saigon Story ahead of its premieres at Hot Docs and DOXA.
Saigon Story, a co-production between Noble Films and the National Film Board of Canada, interrogates the story outside of the famous frame in which General Nguyên Thành Nghê holds a gun to the temple of captured Viet Cong commander Nguyên Văn Lém the split-second before the bullet made impact. The film follows the quest of Nguyên Văn Lém’s children as they search for his remains decades after the execution.
Similarly, Saigon Story begins at the “other side” of the story with Mai Ly Hafer, the former wife of General Nguyên Thành Nghê’s second in command. She shares how her ex-husband, Vinh, tried to kill her after coming home riled up in the aftermath of the shooting. The stories converge as both families seek shared answers. The film layers these diverse perspectives in a kaleidoscopic exploration of what it means to ferret out the truth when images, even celebrated ones, can’t tell a full story.
“The one thing I realized about the war and about this picture is that we’re really looking at a real life Rashômon,” Kim Nguyen told POV in an interview for our current issue. “The truth exists with the transparency of each truth together. It’s almost like quantum realities that exist and we’ll never know the exact truth…It’s the ambiguity of all those projected one on top of the other that is the truth.”
Watch the trailer for Saigon Story below.
