‘From Hollywood to Hanoi’

This is a moving and engrossing 1994 documentary, covering lots of terrain. A beautiful young actress, Tiana, returns to her native country for the first time in more than 20 years. The journey for her is an attempt to reconcile her American identity with her cultural roots. Yet from the moment of arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, her odyssey takes on an epic dimension as she seizes her unique opportunity to use her film as an instrument of reconciliation between Vietnam and the United States. However, it is also a sharp commentary on the potency of American pop culture, and Tiana is highly critical of the way, particularly through movies, the Vietnamese have been depicted before and after the war (Cinemax Wednesday at 8 p.m.).