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EnhanceTV :: Educational TV :: English :: Vietnam Symphony

Vietnam Symphony

In 1965, as the Vietnam War intensified and Hanoi faced the threat of massive U.S. bombing, students and teachers from the National Conservatory of Music were forced to flee the city for the relative safety of a small village in the countryside. With the help of villagers, they built an entire campus underground, creating a maze of hidden tunnels, connecting an auditorium and classrooms. Here, as the war raged around them, they lived, studied and played music for five years.

Black-and-white archival footage captures almost surreal scenes - of pianos wheeled on handcarts along dusty tracks, lessons held in round-the-clock shifts in subterranean caverns, performances for soldiers among heavy armaments, and the unexpected meeting of hard labour and high culture, of the pragmatic and the sublime. This footage is combined with contemporary interviews with the people involved, who recount personal stories of danger, hunger, fear and loss, stories counterbalanced by moments of humour and beauty. And their music, of course.

Since the war, Vietnam has undergone profound changes. These talented musicians and composers are now among the country's cultural leaders, yet their children tend to take little interest in the past, instead they look to the west to shape their future.

Vietnam Symphony records the coming together of the former conservatory students and villagers for a reunion concert 30 years after the war, and paints a moving portrait of life in Vietnam then and now.

Vietnam Symphony is a Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Stonebridge Productions. Developed with the assistance of the Australian Film Commission. Produced in association with the NSW Film and Television Office and SBS Independent. (Commissioned by SBS Independent, in Vietnamese and English, English subtitles)