Ceux qui restent

“From Hanoi to Vinh Môc, on the 17th parallel, from the Ha Ty countryside to construction works for the new Hô Chi Minh highway… four stories woven into a portrait of the generation that fought against the Americans. I chose to film modest folk-workers, peasants, small shopkeepers-far from the world of intellectuals and senior managers, far from patriotic heroes and exemplary figures. Today, the war is already thirty years behind us and the war veterans have all remade their life. They have jobs, a family to feed, children to raise. Yet, they remain attached to this period of their youth and to the camaraderie between the soldiers they once were. What I found most touching, and what I wanted to show, is perhaps how memory and friendship resist forgetfulness and lives that go their own way-a loyalty to the past kept up through thick and thin, whatever everyday life may hold.” (Boris Lojkine)