In the short film Malá/The Little One, the filmmaker Diana Cam Van Nguyen animates her own experience of growing up as a ‘third culture kid’ in the Czech Republic, and far from Vietnam, which her parents always regarded as home. At school, on the street, and in her family’s shop, a young girl encounters racism and navigates the dissonance of existing between two cultures. As she matures, she becomes more self-assured – a quality she tries to instil in her younger sister – but her life is disrupted when her parents consider returning to Vietnam. Through her muted colour palette, elegant hand-drawn animation and subtle, lyrical storytelling, Nguyen channels the complex emotions of her youth – as well as the more universal theme of self-acceptance – into a bittersweet work of art.
Prison letters animate Diana’s attempt to understand a distant father
Directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen
