Ma Thi Di is a 12-year-old Hmong girl living in the northwest mountains of Vietnam. There, she and her family live a life split between their indigenous Hmong community and the social and educational expectations in modern Vietnam. Di is a studious girl who wants to earn her education in the hope of continuing to college. There is one stumbling block in her way that many Hmong girls around her age grow to fear: an ancient practice known as ‘bride kidnapping.’ While the practice is controversial, the more conservative members of the indigenous Hmong community in Vietnam accept the kidnapping as a form of matchmaking.
When Di’s family returns home on the night of the lunar new year, the girl is missing. A classmate has kidnapped her and plans to marry her with the help of his family. We watch Di’s family, her captor’s family, and the Vietnamese state push the girl in different directions. The burden of familial and cultural pressures seeks to destroy her dream of reaching college.
Children of the Mist packs a major punch. The documentary begins as a pensive and beautiful slice-of-life-style ethnography, following Di from her life and work on the family farm to school and back again. We watch children play and families work the fields before we move on to the controversial practice of bride kidnapping. Around the film’s midpoint Di goes missing, and her once-peaceful life is thrown into chaos as the cultural pressures drive her family to push her to accept the marriage.
Even when she refuses, her captor’s family shows up in a show of intimidation. The Vietnamese state steps in after a point, alerted by school authorities, explaining the monetary, legal, and criminal consequences for following through with the forced child marriage. There are moments of beauty and visceral horror to be found in Children of the Mist. Those studying Asian cultures or interested in international human rights will be most interested in viewing this title. Highly Recommended.
Where does this title belong on public library shelves?
Children of the Mist belongs on ethnography, culture, and human rights documentary shelves.
What kind of college instructor could use this film?
Anyone teaching about Asian cultures will want to see this film, and Women’s Studies teachers may also find this documentary useful.