Ba’s Book

CLOSING NIGHT FILM

Official Selection, 2026 Toronto International Film Festival

In BA’S BOOK, filmmaker Ashley Da-Lê Duong answers a gift of letters with a film. Her quiet father, Anh (whom she calls Ba), has written her a memoir chronicling a life she never knew: a brutal coming-of-age in wartime Vietnam and student years in revolutionary Iran. Duong invites him back to their ancestral village of Da-Lê, working alongside her estranged relatives and the local community to adapt her father’s words for the screen.

It turns out that the past is not easy to document. Initially, Duong tries filming straightforward interviews with her aunts, uncles, and grandmother, but quickly finds that they do not want to talk about or relive their traumatic memories of war. To get them to confront their past, Duong experiments with staging fictionalized accounts of their experiences. Suddenly, the stories flow. Every re-created moment becomes a discussion, as her family corrects props and gives notes to the actors, deciding together how much of the past to let into the frame. For a family long accustomed to silence, the process offers a language for all they have never said and the agency to narrate their own lives. Together, they bring his story to life in this inventive, heartfelt hybrid of live-action re-creation and intimate behind-the-scenes documentary.

An earnest and tender portrait of memory, legacy, and showing up for one another, BA’S BOOK traces how the wounds of exile and war pass quietly through generations, and how long-buried guilt and resentment can finally be reckoned with.

– Zaza Nguyen

FREE pre- and post-screening receptions for All-Fest Pass and Closing Night ticketholders at UltraStar Cinemas Mission Valley.

Pre-Screening Reception: 6:30PM – 7:30 PM
Post-Screening After-Party: 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM