Malá Hanoj

Little Hanoi is an intimate long term documentary about 2 young Vietnamese girls who struggle for a perspective for themselves in exotic Czech Republic. There are places, where the transition between post communist to capitalistic societies, from cultural coherence to multicultural diversity and back, is more apparent than in the macrocosm of big cities. Small border village Dubi is such a place. There were times when the business at the German Czech border was buzzing and Vietnamese traders sold garden gnomes, cigarettes and cheap Schnaps to German tourists. Meanwhile their children were nursed by Czech grandmothers, taught Czech and given Czech names like Miluska or Tomas. During the last 2 decades the Vietnamese community became the third biggest minority in Czech and Slovak Republic. Nguyet (Miluska) came to Czech Republik in the age of 15, two years before her two year younger friend Chung (Lida). Their social life in Czech Republic revolved just around a big trading place on the road where they had everything: work, friends and karaoke. But the economic base of this street trade was put into question after a new motor highway was opened and travellers stopped to pass by. Economic crisis and EU enlargement made the situation worse and for the Vietnamese traders a time of reorientation began, forcing them to reconsider once again, where they belong and which way to turn. The film documents the steps that the friends Chung and Nguyet, two young Vietnamese girls, undertake in order to create a new perspective for themselves. Their live is a roller coaster of chancing it with a casino, massage lounge, original Czech tavern, 24/7 grocery and getting adult with side effects like pregnancy and faked marriage. By accompanying the protagonists in temples, discotheques, offices etc. over the course of several years we win an insight on the culture of the Vietnamese migrants in post-communist countries in Europe and its different facets. (texto oficial de la distribuidora)