After the end of the Vietnam War on April 30th, 1975, more than 1.6 million people fled the communist regime in Vietnam to escape imprisonment, forced labour, torture, rape and death. They tried to flee to safety in boats across the South China Sea. A quarter of a million people drowned, families were ripped apart, international salvage operations half-heartedly rolled into action and the term “Boat People” was coined.

Dieu Hao Do, whose parents found refuge in Germany and were part of the Chinese minority in Vietnam, embarks on a very personal journey to meet his relatives on three continents. He confronts his mother, encounters his aunts and uncles in Germany, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City and asks, “What are your memories of the war in Vietnam? Of the exodus? And how did the refugee experience and torn-apart state of the family affect you over the years?” And he wants to know: “Can the trauma of war be inherited?”

HAO ARE YOU? is more than a memory of a family. It is a journey into the past in order to understand the present.

Director: Dieu Hao Do
Writer: Dieu Hao Do
Camera: Florian Mag
Editors: Franziska Köppel, Werner Bednarz
Sound: Kuan-Chen Chen
Music: Lucia Martinez
Production management: Bettina Morlock
Production: Andrea Ufer
Co-production: ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel
Editorial: Burkhard Althoff
Sponsored by: Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, Nordmedia