Summer School: a film about a Czech–Vietnamese family ^{CEFR B2}

Summer School (Letní škola), now in Czech cinemas, is set in 2001 in Cheb and examines identity, language and family tensions within the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic, today estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000 people. The film was shown at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in July 2025.

The story focuses on a local Vietnamese family and the elder son, Kien, who was born in the Czech Republic but sent back to Vietnam for ten years. He returns with spiky red hair and struggles to reconnect; parts of the Czech‑Vietnamese community ostracize him. Told in three parts—from the younger brother, the father and Kien—the film mixes Vietnamese and Czech and depicts Kien’s romantic involvement with his male Czech‑language tutor, Viktor.

Summer School also places these personal tensions in historical context. The first wave of Vietnamese arrivals to then‑Czechoslovakia began in the 1960s as part of socialist programs that brought students and workers; newcomers received Czech lessons, dorm housing and jobs but were expected to return. After 1989 some remained and built small businesses such as late‑night grocery shops, cheap restaurants and later nail salons. A second generation, often fluent in Czech and holding Czech citizenship, is now entering politics, media, medicine, law, music and online culture, while language differences continue to shape belonging.

The director, Dužan Duong (Duong Viet Duc), born in 1991 in Vietnam and raised mainly in the Czech Republic, has made films to address his own conflicts with his parents and to show a more realistic view of family life. Scholars and community members point out that LGBTQ+ topics remain a strong taboo for many older migrants, which makes coming out within the diaspora particularly difficult.