About the Film

Di is a 12-year-old girl living in a village lost in the mist of Northwest Vietnamese mountains. She belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority where women get married very young, enduring the controversial tradition of “bride kidnapping”. On the Lunar New Year’s Eve, when Di’s parents come back home after celebrating, the house is silent: Di has disappeared.

In this documentary that brought her the Best Director Award at the prestigious documentary film festival IDFA, Hà Lệ Diễm examines the tradition of girls being married in their childhood in our present day. Having witnessed one of her own childhood friends being married at a very early age, the director invites the audience to follow the steps of Di as she attempts to take her destiny in her own hands and stands up against tradition.