Ho Chi Minh | The Untold Story of Vietnam’s Women Heroes

The moving story of the young Vietnamese women known as the "Ho Chi Minh Trail volunteers," mobilized during the Vietnam War. From adolescence, most of them coming from peasant families, they were recruited to build, maintain, and repair the vital routes essential for military logistics, all while enduring constant bombings and inhumane conditions: disease, famine, injuries, napalm, and chemical weapons. These women, sacrificing their youth, health, and often their hopes for a family, returned disfigured, sterile, unmarried, without social status, and marginalized in a society that quickly forgot their commitment. Many, unable to marry traditionally, broke taboos to have children on their own at a time when such a choice led to ostracism and humiliation. Some found refuge in Buddhism, becoming nuns to escape social exclusion and seek inner peace. The documentary gives these women a voice, sharing their painful memories, solitude, and dignity. It also highlights the late governmental recognition of their sacrifice, only achieved in the 1990s, long after the end of the war. Les oubliées de la piste ho chi minh Réalisé par Laurence Jourdan