For those of us who dread another terse journalistic foray into Vietnam's war-torn heart of darkness, relax! From Hollywood To Hanoi takes us on a positive journey that is both refreshing and revealing.
The filmmaker, Tiana Alexandra, left her homeland as a youngster after her father, the Minister of Media for President Diem's southern regime, lost confidence in his government. The family resettled in Virginia – far from Saigon's bomb-rattled windows and burning monks. But America's Utopian promise did not settle Tiana's restless soul.
Despite her blossoming success as an actress in Hollywood, and her father's admonitions not to return to the communist stronghold, Tiana ventured back to her forbidden homeland. Her unswerving curiosity leads us on a journey deep into the heart and soul of Vietnam: a land whose people were battered by history, yet never lost the intrinsic core of their forgiving culture.
At the end of her odyssey, Tiana uses the weapons of love and poetry to open the doors and hearts of her father's dreaded northern enemies. The hydra-headed communist monster purrs like a kitten in Tiana's hands, putting us in touch with the softer side of feared leaders like Pham Van Dong, Le Duc Tho, and Ho Chi Minh's military mastermind, General Vo Nguyen Giap. We can all learn from their sincere messages of peace, tolerance and reconciliation.