Don't Burn
Don't Burn (Vietnamese: Đừng Đốt) is a 2009 Vietnamese historical drama directed and written by Đặng Nhật Minh. The film stars Tina Duong, Minh Huong, Ben Rindner, and Mathew M. Korsch.
Set during the Vietnam War, in 1970–1972, the story follows American soldier Fred Whitehurst who discovers the diary of Dang Thuy Tram, a Vietnamese doctor at a field hospital. With help from fellow soldier Huan, he translates the diary and learns about the horrors Thuy endured, the losses around her, and her deep humanity. Fred begins to see the people on both sides as human, and he has nightmares about the war.
Back in the United States, Fred’s translation work continues with his brother Robert Whitehurst and Robert’s Vietnamese wife Mai, reflecting a family with a long military tradition finding empathy in Thuy’s writing. About 35 years later, Fred brings the diary to Texas Tech University for a seminar; it is archived digitally and eventually returned to Thuy’s surviving family. By 2005, Thuy’s diary has become famous in Vietnam and inspires the idea to make a film about her.
Director Đặng Nhật Minh traveled to North Carolina in 2005 to meet Fred Whitehurst and used his impressions to craft a different kind of Vietnam War film—one in which neither side is purely evil and where people are ultimately victims of war. He was moved by a line from the diary about love giving wings.
The film premiered at the 19th Fukuoka International Film Festival in Japan, winning the audience prize. It was released in Vietnam in April 2009 and shown at the ASEM International Film Festival in Hanoi in May 2009. It was Vietnam’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 82nd Academy Awards. The movie won multiple prizes, including the Golden Lotus for Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay at the 2009 Vietnam Film Festival, the Golden Kite Prize and Excellent Director Award, and the audience prize at Fukuoka in 2009.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:59 (CET).