A still from Dung dot (Don’t Burn It). The feature, adapted from the diaries of war martyr medic Dang Thuy Tram, will be released at the end of this month.

Dung dot, or “Don’t Burn It,” a film based on the war diary of martyred resistance army medic Dang Thuy Tram, will hit screens in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on April 25 as the country gears up for Liberation Day.

The film recreates the last years of the heroic young doctor’s life as well as the uncanny journey of her diary, which US soldier Fred Whitehurst picked up on the battlefield and kept for 35 years before finding Tram’s family in 2005.

“I was deeply moved by the film, but I saw little resemblance between the character and my daughter,” said Doan Ngoc Tram, the martyr’s mother.

“The director told me the film will be different from real life. Tram’s character in the film typifies her generation.”

Director Dang Nhat Minh said he intended to make the film different from the diary.

“My film isn’t a documentary or a stiff war film. The film doesn’t seek to replace the diary and it also doesn’t follow the diary exactly,” Minh said.

‘Propaganda’

“Tram is beautiful not because she killed the enemy but because she displayed a deep love and affection for her people in the harshest situations. Her love has won over people on the opposite side of the frontlines,” said Minh.

“My film can be called a propaganda film: it propagandizes humane values and aspirations for peace as expressed by Tram.”

The award-winning director, who scripted the film himself, said he was interested not only in the diary itself, but also in its journey from Vietnam to the US and back home again.

The film’s title comes from the story of Whitehurst finding the diary: The 22-year-old soldier defied orders to burn the diary after a translator in the South Vietnamese army described the power of the writing.

Lukewarm reception

Critics say the film does not necessarily live up to the hype surrounding it.

Some have said the picture’s lead, newcomer Minh Huong, physically resembled Tram but wasn’t experienced enough to bring life to the hero’s psychologically taut tale.

They also said the script recreated some parts of the diary successfully but failed to give a vivid, true-to-life portrayal of the main character.

Many also said the ending was overdramatic and ineffective.

A martyr’s tale

Dang Thuy Tram, born in Hanoi in 1942, was a Vietnamese military surgeon working for the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

She kept a detailed account of her thoughts during the war at her post in a mobile clinic around Duc Pho District in the central province of Quang Ngai.

Tram was killed by US forces in 1970 and her diary has been published in 15 different countries.

Source: TN, TT