Children of the Mist (Những Đứa Trẻ Trong Sương) is a 2021 Vietnamese documentary directed by Hà Lệ Diễm. Set in the mountainous regions of northern Vietnam, the film follows Di, a young Hmong girl growing up between traditional expectations, the changing values brought by education, and her own desire to determine the direction of her future.
The film is Hà Lệ Diễm’s first feature-length documentary. She began filming in 2017 and continued following Di and her family for approximately three and a half years before completing the film in late 2021. Produced by Varan Vietnam, the film runs approximately 92 minutes.
Following Di’s Journey
Di grows up in a Hmong community in the mountains of northern Vietnam, where girls traditionally marry at a young age. She belongs to a generation with greater access to education and information than many women in her community had before her.
At school, Di encounters values and possibilities that differ from those surrounding her at home. She begins to imagine a future beyond the expectations traditionally placed on young women in the village.
The film follows this transition closely, observing Di’s relationships with her family, friends and community as she moves from childhood toward adolescence.
One of the film’s central tensions emerges from the traditional practice known as “bride kidnapping”, in which a young woman may be taken by a prospective husband before negotiations between the two families. The film does not treat this subject only as an abstract social issue; instead, it observes how tradition, family relationships and an individual’s own choices intersect in the life of one young girl.
A Documentary Built Over Time
Unlike a production built around a fixed shooting schedule, Children of the Mist developed through a long period of observation.
Hà Lệ Diễm began filming Di in 2017 and continued documenting her life for several years. During this period, the filmmaker remained closely connected to the characters and their environment, allowing the story to develop through events that could not have been fully predicted in advance.
The approach gives the film an unusual sense of intimacy. Rather than relying on interviews to explain every aspect of the story, the camera remains close to everyday life and allows relationships, conversations and events to reveal themselves gradually.
This also created particular challenges for sound. Documentary recording in a mountainous environment requires the sound team to work with the limitations of real locations, unpredictable movement and continuously changing acoustic conditions.
Sound Supervision from Production to Post-Production
The film’s sound workflow involved Hoàng Thu Thủy and Arnaud Soulier as Sound Supervisors, with Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr as Sound Mixer and Amornpong Thokaeonopparat as Foley Artist.
During production, Hà Lệ Diễm operated the camera herself and recorded sound using a Neumann KMR 81 microphone mounted on the camera. According to Arnaud Soulier, he and Hoàng Thu Thủy worked as sound supervisors throughout both filming and post-production.
This created a workflow in which production recordings were not treated simply as raw material to be cleaned up later. The sound captured during the long filming period became part of the film’s documentary character, while post-production could then refine, organize and extend that material where necessary.
For a documentary built around observation, the distinction between foreground and background sound can be particularly important. Voices, footsteps, household activity, weather, animals, village life and the surrounding landscape all contribute information about where the characters are and how they experience their environment.
The sound therefore works not only as support for dialogue, but also as a way of preserving the physical presence of the world in which the story takes place.
Building a Sense of Place
The mountainous environment is an important part of Children of the Mist. The landscape is not simply a visual backdrop; it is continuously present through the sounds of daily life and the natural environment.
This makes sound an important component of the film’s sense of place. Rather than imposing a heavily constructed soundtrack over the documentary material, the production and post-production process could preserve the acoustic character of the locations while shaping it into a coherent cinematic experience.
The involvement of dedicated sound supervision and Foley during post-production allowed the soundtrack to remain connected to the physical world of the film while giving individual moments the clarity and presence required for cinema.
From IDFA to the International Documentary Circuit
Children of the Mist premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2021, where it received the IDFA Award for Best Directing in the International Competition and a Special Mention for the First Appearance Award. The film was also nominated for the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary.
The film subsequently travelled extensively through the international documentary festival circuit.
Among its major recognitions were:
- Best International Film — DocAviv International Documentary Film Festival 2022
- Clarens Prize for Humanist Documentary Filmmaking — Cinéma du Réel 2022
- Best International Documentary Feature — Guanajuato International Film Festival 2022
- Jury Prize — Hong Kong International Film Festival 2022
- SOS-Kinderdörfer Award for Best Film — DOK.fest München 2022
- Award for Cinematic Documentary — Cork International Film Festival 2022
- Best Southeast Asian Documentary — BaliMakarya Film Festival 2022
- Feature Documentary Award — DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2022
- Youth Jury Award / Little Stamp — ZagrebDox 2022
Golden Lotus and Recognition in Vietnam
At the 23rd Vietnam Film Festival in 2023, Children of the Mist received the Golden Lotus Award for Documentary Film. The festival also awarded Best Director to Hà Lệ Diễm for the film.
The awards marked an important recognition of the film within Vietnam after its extensive international festival journey.
Oscar Shortlist
In December 2022, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences included Children of the Mist among the 15 films shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature at the 95th Academy Awards.
The shortlist was selected from 144 eligible films in the category. The Academy’s shortlist announcement therefore represented an international recognition at the highest level of the documentary awards process, although the film did not advance to the final five nominees.
A Vietnamese Documentary with a Global Reach
Children of the Mist demonstrates how a deeply local documentary can reach audiences far beyond its original setting.
The film’s story is rooted in the life of one young girl and her community, but its themes extend to questions of childhood, education, tradition, family, identity and the transition into adulthood.
Its long production period, intimate observational approach and carefully developed sound workflow allow the audience to remain close to the characters while retaining a strong sense of the physical environment in which they live.
From a young filmmaker documenting her community over several years to an internationally recognized documentary screened across major festivals, Children of the Mist represents a significant chapter in the development of contemporary Vietnamese documentary cinema.
