The documentary shows the crash survivor, Annette Herfkens, meet one of her rescuers in O Kha Valley, Khanh Hoa Province. — VNS

PHU YEN (VNS) — The recent visit by the sole survivor of a plane crash that happened 22 years ago has inspired Vietnamese filmmakers to produce a documentary based on the incident.

The plane had crashed in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa, killing 30 passengers and crew members.

The film's scriptwriter Tran Thanh Hung came up with the idea of making the documentary when the crash survivor, Annette Herfkens, came to Viet Nam last month to meet those who had rescued her and the relatives of some of the passengers who died in the accident.

However, instead of focusing on Herfkens, the film focuses on the widows of the pilots of the plane and the Mi-08 rescue helicopter which also crashed. The helicopter was piloted by Captain Nguyen Quang Vinh.

Hung said the film entitled Anh Sang Giua Tang Khong (Light in the Air) concentrated neither on the accident, nor on the life of the victims' family members after the crash or the days Herfkens spent battling death.

"The film conveys a simple message that what belonged to the past is the past of the present. The past is the seed that enables the present to spout," said Hung, who is also Deputy Director of Viet Nam Television branch in the central Phu Yen Province.

The narrator in the film is journalist Huynh Dung Nhan who was then a reporter with the Lao Dong newspaper and closely followed the incident. He was lucky to escape death because the pilot of the rescue helicopter had refused to let him in.

Produced by Viet Nam Television in Phu Yen's Cinema Division, the documentary was shot in five days in HCM City and Khanh Hoa. However, it took more than a month to be completed.

The 24-minute documentary, directed by Ho Nhat Thao, will be screened at the Ha Noi International Film Festival that will be held from November 23 to 27. — VNS