Chau, Beyond The Lines

Between 1962 and 1971, the US military sprayed 75,700,000 litres of synthesised chemical herbicides and defoliants across a fifth of the forested land in south Vietnam. Among these chemicals was the notorious Agent Orange, estimated to have disfigured or disabled as many as three million people. In many parts of the country, it has never been cleaned up. Decades later, Chau's mother was at a festival. She drank water from a river. Chau was born different.

To be honest, Chau would be different even if his body looked and worked like most people's. He's the sort of boy born to be frustrated by the dearth of opportunities in rural Vietnam, and although he has the good fortune to have relatives who can afford to send him to a special school for disabled children, he's bored there too. Though he has good friends, a group of children who help one another to work around their limitations and who smile wryly about the visitors who come to photograph them, he's not interested in spending all day studying in order to be able to compete in a job market where even able-bodied people are struggling to get work. He's much more ambitious than that. Though the weakness of his arms means it takes him all day to produce a small drawing, he undoubtedly has talent, and he wants to put it to use as an artist or clothing designer.

To many viewers, Chau's situation will seem exotic and shocking. Watching the film as a disabled person, it's striking how many of his difficulties are common all around the world. He wants to strike out on his own but it's hard to find somewhere accessible to live and even harder to find somewhere he can wash; splashing water on himself is a challenge and sometimes he just has to put up with being dirty, but then how can he get a job? He does get government support, however, and with the help of this and his driving ambition, he seems set on the course of success.

What this film does really well is to celebrate Chau's achievements without ever trivialising the barriers he faces or suggesting that anyone could do what he does if they tried hard enough. What's inspiring about him is his courage as an artist and his genuine ability. In the latter part of the film, when he's in his late teens, we observe him finding his artistic voice, developing technique and creating work that stands on its own merits. From his early sketches of war scenes he has moved on to depict a new, vibrant Vietnam in dramatic hues.

Director Courtney Marsh has a way of putting her subjects at ease, presenting us with moments that make us feel like insiders. She invites us not simply to gawp at these children and reflect on the horror what's happened but to identify with them and, through them, feel positive about this injured country's future.