Thao's Library (NR)

synopsis

This year, 2015, marks fifty years since the first US combat ground forces landed in Vietnam and forty years since the fall of Saigon. The ripple effect of this war continues to rage on today in the life of Thao, a 24-year-old Vietnamese woman born the victim of Agent Orange. Halfway around the world a struggling American, Elizabeth, attempts to cope with a bottomless well of depression brought on after the sudden loss of her famed younger sister. Elizabeth happens to be shown a photograph of Thao. The young woman appears to have almost no legs and is sitting in her wheelchair outside of her family's shed which houses pig feed, fertilizer, and books. Despite her crippling physical deformities, Thao has created a library, from donated and scavenged materials, within her family's shed for the children of the village. The photographer who captured the image of Thao asks her, "If you could have anything in the world what would it be?" Thao replies, "Three hundred dollars, so I can buy more books for the library." Through this simple request, Thao and Elizabeth, two unlikely friends are brought together to reflect on the past and deal with the present, forging a bond that eventually will change both of their lives forever.