From Vietnam comes this visually poetic, gentle story about growing up amidst the reality of war. In some respects, the heroine is a universal teenager, prone to daydreams and annoyed by pestering boys. What makes her adolescent experience particular is the war: family, friends, schoolmates-the front calls upon everyone. She finds solace and release in her correspondence with a young soldier: for both, the letters provide a strong, comforting bond that grows. Despite the urgings of her father and friends, the 17-year-old refuses to abandon this romantic fantasy until she is forced to by grave circumstance. Set in Hanoi with the war pervasive but always offscreen, Fairytale conveys a pastoral quality that surprises. Its lyricism is punctuated by quietly poignant conversations. Never doctrinaire or vindictive in tone, Trinh Tranh Nha's script elucidates a psychological portrait of people for whom war has been an historical and emotional legacy for over forty years. Under Xuan Son's direction, what emerges is a story about separation, loss, and the will to love despite duress. Laura Thielen, San Francisco International Film Festival '88