In Anh Duong’s memoir Dear Da-Lê: A Father’s Memoir of the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution, published in 2024, the author recounts his experiences and family trauma for his daughter Ashley – from his childhood near Huế, Vietnam and escaping the Vietnam War to living as a refugee during the 1970s revolution in Iran, and arriving in Canada in 1980.

Ashley Duong decided to make a film in response to his memoir to help further uncover painful memories that her father had kept from her and his family until they were revealed in his book. The result is Ba’s Book, which mixes vérité documentary, re-enactments by family members in Vietnam and actors, as well as travelog into a heartfelt family film.

Written and directed by Ashley Da-Lê Duong, it world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and is now celebrating its international premiere during the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, where it will screen on Oct. 8 and 9.

This is how press notes about Ba’s Book set up the film: “Returning to her ancestral village, [Ashley] collaborates with her father and relatives to film participatory re-creations of their past. A true hybrid of live-action and documentary, Ba’s Book offers a disarming look at how a family moves forward from divisions caused by displacement and war.”

Ahead of the London screenings, Ashley Duong discussed her experience making Ba’s Book and how it changed her relationship with her family with THR.

The decision to embark on a cinematic journey together took a while. “It was definitely a whole process,” the filmmaker recalls. “I went on an artist residency with my dad. I never expected to do that. And so the decision to make this film actually took at least a couple of years before I was ready and said, okay, let’s do this. After all, it was a very ambitious project.”

One key challenge was that she wanted to give her father and family the space they needed, but that came with a lack of predictability. “My dad wanted a lot of information, which was hard for me because I didn’t actually know what was going to happen next a lot of the time,” Duong tells THR. “There was a discovery process for everybody.”

Following this process also led her to realize that she was a character who also had to appear on screen. “At the beginning, I was filming interviews with my relatives, and I was behind the camera, not on screen,” Duong shares. “But later on, I realized this is part of my story too. I have to be just as vulnerable as my family, so I’m going to have to put myself in the film more. It actually took a couple of years before I got to that point where I was actually in the film. At the end of the day, it is a story about me learning about my father and learning about my family.”

Appearing in front of the camera wasn’t fully natural for her. “I’ve never been in a film before,” the director explained. “I’ve never filmed myself before, and I’m a naturally quite shy person, so there was a lot of putting myself out there. But I felt it was only fair because I was asking my family to do the same thing. I felt if I’m going to make them go under the spotlight, I will need to be brave too.”

Some scenes in Ba’s Book, such as one in which father and daughter disagree on how detailed a certain reenactment has to be, also remind viewers that different people process the world differently. “There were moments where he’s very pedantic. Because he’s an engineer, he has these very detailed ways of talking about things,” Duong notes. “At first, that was frustrating for me because there are time crunches in filmmaking; you have a whole crew and actors waiting. But I had to keep reminding myself that none of that matters. What really matters are these interactions, and what I’m trying to learn is about my dad and my relatives, so everybody else can wait.”

In the end, the filmmaking process also brought daughter and father closer together. “We just know each other in a very different way now,” she tells THR. “We watched Blue Heron recently, which is also a Canadian hybrid film. I didn’t know if my dad would like it because it’s not what I would think is his type of film. But we had creative conversations. I was glad that we could watch a film like that and then hear all these ideas he had.”

Her father, who will join her in a LFF Q&A, has now also seen Ba’s Book “a few times,” shares Duong. “And each time, it brings up continual discussion. He’s somebody who thinks about things and has new insights. So after every screening, we talk about it again.”

Duong’s audience feedback so far has included some emotional reactions. “What I really have appreciated from the process of showing my film to audiences is the comments I get,” she says. “Some people are coming up to me in tears, saying, ‘I have to call my mom.’ I feel people don’t always have the right words for things. And with this film, we were really trying to find those and find a way of speaking to each other through the process of making a film. If that inspires people to go home and ask family members the questions they’ve been waiting for, then that’s kind of amazing.”

Duong also mentions a positive surprise about audience reactions to Ba’s Book. “It’s funny how much people have been laughing because that’s surprising when you hear that the film is about a family investigating trauma that happened,” she says. “I think this film sometimes brings people, at least me when I watch it now, from laughing to crying very quickly. There’s a very dynamic family interaction. People are living with their memories, and you’re not always crying when you’re living with your memories. Sometimes, you’re bickering, or you’re funny, so there’s a lot going on there.”

Fans of Ba’s Book may be wondering if they will be able to see more from the young filmmaker in the future. “I have a narrative script that I’ve been writing with my co-writer,” Duong tells THR. “And there is also another hybrid documentary that we’ve been thinking about, but it’s not advanced enough to talk about it.”