To be Vietnamese is to have the capacity for suffering.

Perhaps tempered by our long and tortuous history, our genes have taught us how to suffer, and suffering becomes our fate. Millennia of wars and occupations, vicious cycles of oppressive rules and exiles have evolved into the ethos of our race to make us who we are. To someday rise from this sea of troubles we must remember we have sprung from this abyss of wretched despair. If by chance we can overcome this unhappiness then is it because our people have endured the lot and not in spite of it?

Those who intend to see “Bolinao 52” at the Vietnamese International Film Festival need to remember that.

The theme of (hu)man’s fate threads through the feature, evoking the viewers’ empathy at every turn. Yet as a tearjerker, the documentary is valued for its message of redemption and hope as much as its message of forbearance and suffering, and no one is more qualified to take the insufferable role than Trịnh Thanh Tùng, the survivor who had to relive the ordeal in the making of this movie.

At the end of the war in 1975, the mass exodus of boat people began. On May 22, 1988, a group of 110 Vietnamese decided to escape Việt Nam by boat, among them this woman, her big brother, her son and a nephew. During the 37 days at sea, the group encountered violent storms and engine failures; crew members aboard other vessels refused to help. Chief among them was the USS Dubuque, whose captain, Alex Balian was later court-martialed for not coming to their rescue. After running out of food and resorting to cannibalism, their craft began to take in water and drifted until they were finally towed to shore by Filipino fishermen. Out of the original 110, the human flotsam was now reduced to 52 people.

Trịnh’s words still resonate in my mind, a few weeks after seeing “Bolinao 52” at San Francisco’s Asian American Film Festival, and after hearing her story about cradling a cold traveling companion — only to wake up in the morning to find her boat neighbor had succumbed sometime during the night. Or the story of the two brothers, one whom bit on the other’s arm out of hunger, which she related to her own tale of cannibalism.

“Years later, people asked me, did human flesh taste good?” she started sobbing loudly. “How could I know? I didn’t taste it. I just swallowed...”

While many of us have read and seen other accounts of the boat people, there was some furtive wiping of tears and sobbing heard over quiet passages. In some spots, laughter was interspersed, such as when the image on screen shows a Vietnamese boy wearing a man’s shirt that stretched to his ankles, leading a naval band on the deck of the USS Long Beach after a different kind of escape from Việt Nam.

But, for the most part, be prepared, be ready to have your heart bleed for your race, the human race.

Trịnh, following the screening, endeared herself to the audience with her simple but expressive manners. She talked, at times with brutal honesty, as if the lost souls of her 58 companions were there, entrusting her with the task of making the truth known to the world.

That she and the escapees survived is remarkable. Yet her triumph over the bitterness of being abandoned and her desire to forgive have given her solace. The strength of any documentary is of course the truth and how that truth is told. In “Bolinao 52,” this retelling is etched onto the viewers’ consciousness, showing us how amply the human spirit is demonstrated by the victim-turned-victor Trònh.

In that sense, the credit for the film’s success goes to filmmaker Đức Nguyễn and his team for sparing little expense in going back to Bolinao, Philippines, and to Okinawa, Japan. The result is a drama of forgiveness, closure and healing. That Trịnh Thanh Tùng embodies it as an ambassador of goodwill makes it all the more powerful.

IF YOU GO
“Sharing Visions”: Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2007
When: Today through Sunday and April 19 through 22
Screening Locations: University of California, Irvine Film and Video
Center with selected screenings and panel discussions at UCLA and in
Westminster, Calif. Opening Night will be at the Edwards University Cinema 6, Irvine, Calif
Tickets: Available at www.vietfilmfest.com and Tú Quỳnh Book Store (714) 531-4284
Opening night: Tonight, 6 p.m. World premiere of “The Rebel,” directed by Charlie Nguyễn. A Vietnamese agent goes against his French superiors to help the daughter of a Rebel leader warn her village of an impending attack. Loyalties are questioned and all must ask, who do you trust? Starring Dustin Nguyễn, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Ngô Thanh Vân, Nguyễn Chánh Tín, and Nguyễn Thăng.
Spotlight Award: Saturday, 7 p.m. “Living in Fear,”
directed by Bùi Thạc
Chuyên, screenplay by Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc. In post-Việt Nam War, Bình Xuân is now plagued with the threat of unmarked landmines. Screenwriter Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc challenges the notion of authority and social normalcy. Winner of Best Film in the New Asia Talent section of the Ninth Shanghai International Film Festival.
Closing night: April 22, 6 p.m.. World premier of “Dust of Life,” directed
by Lê-Văn Kiệt. The film throws the viewers into the gritty reality of
displaced teens living in Westminster, Calif., during the 1990s, as they
struggle to find a home in a foreign country and accept the love they are
given.
Information: www.vietfilmfest.com