A portrait of life under the helicopters, The Abandoned Field is at once unnerving and compelling in its subjective-camera-eye view of war as it envelops a young family. A couple live with their infant son in a marsh that has been designated a free-fire zone, deep in the Mekong Delta in what looks like the Plain of Reeds. With other individuals much like themselves, they act as liaisons for the Viet Cong and when the shooting starts, take up arms along with the others. Despite the constant danger, they live in a quiet passion of love that is quite remarkably portrayed in the film; a balance between fear, grief and joy seems to impel, almost invigorate their peaceful moments. When the predatory copters come, hovering and diving as if to catch the delicious insect, they hide in the only possible place-the water, under lily pads, placing their baby in a plastic bag-and move stealthily among the reeds. "The turtle crawls around the jar..." goes a line of a lovers' verse that opens the film; early on we realize the relentlessness of these people's entrapment, and their determination. When the film cuts to the American camp and the helicopter-eye view, it becomes a surreal horror show, not because the Americans are portrayed as clownishly decadent, but because of all the tenderness and terror that we have just witnessed.