Child of Dust

When the dust settled after the war in Vietnam, American soldiers left behind entire lives. Countless children grew up without one parent in post-war Vietnam, with no knowledge of their origins. The film follows Sang, one of these children, who manages to find his American father decades after the war. Sang gets the chance to meet his new family in America, but the choice between leaving and staying is not always easy. How can a person choose between two families – the one he has known all his life and the one he has only met in his imagination?

Child of Dust tells a story of family, identity, and the traumas of war from the perspective of those who stayed behind. What does it feel like to long for a family you have never known? The film explores family relationships that are given from the beginning as well as those that one must seek out on one’s own. It asks whether you can find yourself by searching for your roots and tells a story of leaving and staying; of finding family in places both familiar and unfamiliar.

Siiri Paarlahti (translated by Moritz Müller)