A film about US pilots imprisoned in Hanoi was broadcast for the first time on Vietnam Television’s VTV1 on December 26.

The documentary, entitled The Prisoners in the Hanoi Hilton and directed by Frenchman Daniel Roussel, was produced in 1991 and has been screened in several European countries.

The film includes footage from 1967-1973 of US soldiers held in the Hoa Lo Prison, which was ironically called the Hanoi-Hilton by the capital’s citizens.

Inspired by what he saw, Roussel came to the US to track down and meet the American veterans who had been imprisoned in Hanoi. It took him three months to track down Captain Beans, the pilot of a B52 bomber which was shot down over the Vietnamese capital in 1972.

The film opens with footage of President Ho Chi Minh giving his famous speech on Vietnam’s determination to defeat all its enemies. Roussel then focuses on the experiences of US prisoners, including Lieutenant-Colonel John Harry Yole.

It wasn’t easy for the veterans to review their war experiences, Roussel says. “I stayed with them for several days to show them the footage and record their responses. I really didn’t know how they would react to the film but it was great. They were moved and defined these moments as unforgettable parts of their lives.”

Roussel has already completed several other documentaries on the French and American wars resistance in Vietnam and The Prisoners in the Hanoi – Hilton will not be the last, he says. The French director is also planning to make a film on Vietnamese soldiers missing in action during the American war and another to document the lives of non-combatants in the conflict, like war photographers and war reporters.

Roussel worked for the French L’Humanite newspaper as a correspondent in Vietnam from 1980-1986.