The Bamboo Incident

8/2/2025

This is quite a poignant wartime drama that’s told largely from the perspective of the young “Hung” (Phi Lan). With his father away at the war, he lives with his little sister “Xuan” (Huynh Cazenas) and their ailing mother (Xuan Ha) but with the flames of war getting ever closer, their lives are becoming more dangerous. For safety, they relocate to their cousins, but they don’t really have any interest in this little family, and when the mum finally succumbs to her illness, it falls to the youngster to look after his sister as best he can. He tries all manner of jobs from collecting old newspapers to shining shoes, but in the end he cannot cope alone and so puts “Xuan” under the kindly care of the local French hospital. His determination to survive introduces him to people on both sides of