SHINING LIGHT

EXCLUSIVE PRESHOW EVENT for FILM CLUB FRIDAY TICKET HOLDERS

It’s late April 1975 and the Communist North Vietnamese army has entered the city and thousands are desperate to flee. Mui is nine months pregnant with Anh and they are on the roof of the American embassy. Her husband and two-year-old son are also there hoping to escape on a helicopter. When the last US Marine Chopper lifts off, they are still stranded on the roof
What transpires over the next three weeks is an improbable and remarkable sequence of events. The family escapes on the Truong Xuan, the last Cargo ship to leave Saigon; Anh’s birth on that boat two days later as it begins to sink; a Danish freighter, the Clara Maersk that comes to their rescue; a British Royal Air Force helicopter that also comes to their rescue; a refugee camp in Hong Kong where they meet Canadian immigration officers; and lastly their emigration to Canada. 50 years later – mother, daughter and other key protagonists connected to their story, including the helicopter crewman and the Canadian immigration officer meet in Montreal to reconstruct how it happened and who they’ve become today. Anh calls it “bringing together all the pieces of her survival puzzle – a reconciliation of the past and present”.

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