Two films by André Menras
together on one DVD special edition
These two unique films about a subject shrouded in silence have made waves, as no film director has previously been allowed to film the Vietnamese fishermen-divers banned from the Paracels Archipelago occupied militarily by China since 1974.
No documentary has given the distressed widows who are shamefacedly ignored and the fishermen who are attacked and wounded a voice until now.
They represent two wake-up calls to the international community to demonstrate its solidarity.
Film 1
The Knights of the Yellow Sands
Run time : 25 minutes
Format : 16/9
Year : 2017
Audio : French and Vietnamese
Subtitles : English, Chinese and Czech
15 of them take to the sea on a newly repaired wooden-hulled boat after being rammed recently, with a fragile engine which often overheats and steel-hulled Chinese juggernauts close by. Each man spends four hours a night hunting at depths of several tens of metres, breathing in the hot air from the compressor in the hold.
They are on their own, several hundred kilometres from the coast, without any technical resources to prevent decompression accidents and far from any help. They experience extreme fatigue as the days go by, and this is exacerbated by the temperamental sea.
«This documentary is the result of a 1000 km journey over 27 days with a crew of young fishermen-divers from the village of Bình Châu in the province of Quảng Ngãi in central Vietnam. I have a camera and a notepad, but there is also a real bond with these men hardened to pain, yet strong despite the danger.
The departure is organised in a strangely clandestine atmosphere where I have been guided, hidden and protected by these poor families like a guerrilla fighter during the Resistance, as my situation and theirs is illegal according to Vietnamese fishing laws. But my pride - and theirs even more so - do not stop us from braving the authorities' prohibition; quite the opposite. We are proud to have asserted fundamental rights to life, work and our citizens’ rights to sovereignty in this high-risk area.
Our return at night was just as epic. We landed on the coast in a slow-moving coracle which was starting to fill with water, and the wives of the fishermen who were waiting for me in the sea with water up to their waists took my bags. I was escorted by them from the shoreline to a neighbouring house and taken by motorbike to a remote location out of sight for my first hours while enduring landsickness. "Bác Hai", or uncle number 2, was safe and sound apart from a shoulder which had been dislocated several times.
Why "knights"? Because despite the natural or human danger, these calm and noble men are true aristocrats of the sea. This Vietnamese music played on the deck while they are fishing 35 metres under water surrounded by Chinese vessels right where they were attacked only a few months earlier, not even 7 nautical miles from the militarised island of Lincoln, will remain etched in my memory forever».
André Menras
Extract :
The movie :
Film 2
The Pain of Loss
Run time : 60 minutes
Format : 4:3
Year : 2010
Audio : French and Vietnamese
Subtitles : English and Chinese
Since time immemorial, sailors and fishermen have visited the Paracel archipelago (Hoang Sa) off the coast of central Vietnam. For centuries, the Annam Empire and then Vietnam have claimed sovereignty of them. But since 1974, the Chinese war navy has occupied these islands and their maritime space.
So the local Vietnamese fishermen are trapped in a conflict about sovereignty with a geo-strategic dimension. «Some have been taken hostage by the Chinese military, and others have had their catches confiscated or their boats destroyed. Some were even shot dead!» explains André Menras. This Franco-Vietnamese director has carried out an investigation. He questioned «these ordinary heroes who continue to fish, both because they have to and pride».
He filmed their distress and the solitude of the widows. To the despair of the region's inhabitants, the Vietnamese trawlers are gradually losing ground and are being replaced by Chinese trawlers escorted by war vessels.
«"The pain of loss" permeates the accounts of the fishermen and widows recounting the attacks on Vietnamese boats by the Chinese navy, the imprisonment of crews and their release in exchange for ransoms». L’Express.
«This documentary is a tribute to these men and their families who do not even have the resources needed to honour their dead». La Marseillaise.
Extract :
The movie :
DVD contents
Film 1 : The Knigts of the Yellow Sands
- Run time : 25 minutes
- Format : 16:9, 4:3 compatible
- Year : 2017
Film 2 : The Pain of Loss
- Run time : 60 minutes
- Format : 4:3
- Year : 2010
Languages:
- Menus: French, Vietnamese, English, Chinese
- Audio: French, Vietnamese
- Subtitles: English, Chinese, Czech
50% of royalties are donated
to the solidarity fund for the fishermen victims of Chinese assaults.
