The Independent

In war saga 'The Sympathizer,' Vietnamese voices are no longer stuck in the background

Source: ©HBO

Vietnamese journalist-turned-filmmaker Phanxinê remembers exactly when he decided to make movies in his native country rather than Hollywood.

It was in 2008 but it could have been a satirical scene out of the Vietnam Era-novel “The Sympathizer.” Someone from a movie studio visiting his University of Southern California film class told him his story pitch about a Vietnamese American woman traveling the U.S. would only work if the heroine was white.

Having a white star would give the film “a broader audience,” Phanxinê recounts being told.

“It is the moment I realized that if I

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