FESTIVAL ’90

Highlights of Los Angeles Festival’s films and videos focusing on 25 Pacific Rim countries are reviewed here:

The Abandoned Field--Free Fire Zone

Vietnam Airs tonight at 10:30 on KCET-TV; screens Monday at 6 p.m., Los Feliz Theater Nguyen Hong Sen’s lyrical “The Abandoned Field--Free Fire Zone” (1979) tells of a young couple with a baby who live in a simple hut built on the edge of a vast marsh. Our first impression is that the couple are living an idyllic existence in a beautiful Garden of Edenlike setting. But this is quickly dispelled as we discover that U.S. helicopters constantly attack the area, attempt to turn it into a no-man’s land in preparation for an assault on the Mekong Delta. The couple, in turn, serve as liaisons for the Viet Cong, which allows us to see just how ingenious and implacable guerrilla warfare can be.