Regret to Inform (1998)

In this film made over ten years, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. She and translator (and fellow war widow) Xuan... See full summary »

Director:

Barbara Sonneborn

Writer:

Barbara Sonneborn

Stars:

Xuan Ngoc Nguyen, Barbara Sonneborn

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 11 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Xuan Ngoc Nguyen	...	Herself
Barbara Sonneborn	...	Herself

Storyline

In this film made over ten years, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. She and translator (and fellow war widow) Xuan Ngoc Nguyen explore the meaning of war and loss on a human level. The film weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the legacy of war.

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Plot Keywords:

widow | interview | journey | 1990s | mortar | 

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Genres:

Documentary | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

PBS [United States] Sun Fountain Productions

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Meta lypis sas pliroforoume

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$6,294 (USA) (25 June 1999)

Gross:

$22,627 (USA) (23 July 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sun Fountain Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Color:

Black and White Color

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

For all who have suffered from war, For all the lives lost... "They say: Our deaths are not ours: They are yours; They will mean what you make them."

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Soundtracks

"River Study"
Written by D.A. Sonneborn
Performed by D.A. Sonneborn

User Reviews

Two sides, and the two deaths of war

This is a heartbreaking Oscar-nominated film, 7 years in the making, that brings a war I've only known as history, being 20, to vivid, poignant, and brutally honest life. Sonnenborn brings the Vietnam war home from a bold new perspective- the war's widows, both American and Vietnamese. Sonnenborn herself is such a widow, and so the film's journey to the past begins with her own personal trek to Vietnam, searching for the ordinary field where her husband Jeff was killed. As much as the film depicts the spiritual suffering of American soldiers and their families, it reveals the Vietnamese in the same suffering, a decent people forced to do the unimaginable to survive in war.

Sonnenborn brilliantly combines peaceful images of the modern Vietnam with brutal up-front news footage from the war. The soundtrack is a mix of atmospheric music, the testimony of Vietnamese survivors describing their ordeal, and American widows reciting their husbands' words, through letters sent home during the war.

I don't know why it is we constantly separate the documentary genre- this is a drama, a social and political film, and just because it has no major actors and relies totally on reality should not disqualify it from showing in your local multiplex. It is a powerful, memorable picture, not just "another documentary." It makes you think and reflect about why we went into war, and it provokes many of the emotions for which we all seek film. "Regret to Inform" piercingly reveals how the souls, the humanity, of soldiers and civilians die in war. Seek this film out, whether you lived through Vietnam or not. It will affect you.