A dissident Vietnamese filmmaker, who is now forced to flee his homeland after torture for his participation in the 2018 Vietnam pro-democracy protests, flees to Thailand and eventually Europe. The film, directed by Socrates Saint-Wulstan Drakos (a pseudonym), follows through the director’s earliest memories of filmmaking, his involvement with the protests, and his subsequent torture by the Vietnamese government that forced him to flee. While in Thailand, the Drakos stays for five years, undocumented, learning Thai through post-it notes while in hiding. After securing asylum, instead of safety he faces continual displacement at the hands of the restrictive European bureaucracy.

The film is strung together as a bricolage-esque diary, interspersed with various other media ranging from Soviet propaganda to colonial archives. This style creates themes of memory and censorship as the Drakos’ identity is both kept hidden and yet fully explored and asserted. Paired with the filmmaker’s story of torture for protest and subsequent flight, the film tells a story of repression and exile—one where even after fleeing from their homeland, they continually face restriction and displacementagainst the bastion of rigid systematic and administrative barriers. This film’s humanity stems from its confrontational politics. Through its non-linear storytelling, it shows the coexistence of hope and fear amongst political dissidence.

By Tai Nguyen