Indochine is a 1992 French film set in colonial French Indochina

French Indochina

French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....

 during the 1930s. It is the story of Éliane Devries, a French plantation owner, and of her adopted Vietnamese

Vietnamese people

The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...

 daughter, Camille, with the rising Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

ese nationalist movement set as a backdrop. The screenplay was written by novelist Erik Orsenna

Érik Orsenna

Érik Orsenna is the pen-name of Érik Arnoult , a French politician and novelist. After studying philosophy and political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris , Orsenna specialized in economics at the London School of Economics...

, script writers Louis Gardel

Louis Gardel

Louis Gardel is a notable French novelist, screenwriter, and publisher, born in Algiers in 1939. He is also publishing director of Éditions du Seuil and a permanent member of the Prix Renaudot jury.- Bibliography :* L'Été fracassé...

, Catherine Cohen, and Régis Wargnier

Régis Wargnier

Régis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor and film score composer.-Director:*1986 : La Femme de ma vie starring Jane Birkin*1988 : Sueurs froides...

, who also directed the film. The film stars Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...

, Vincent Perez

Vincent Pérez

Vincent Pérez is a Swiss-born French speaking actor and director. He is best known internationally for playing the title character Ashe Corven in The Crow: City of Angels, and for starring in Queen of the Damned, playing Marius de Romanus...

, Linh Dan Pham

Linh Dan Pham

Linh Dan Pham is a French actress.She was born in Saigon, South Vietnam, but moved with her family to France a year later just before the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong's forces and grew up in Paris...

, Jean Yanne

Jean Yanne

Jean Yanne is the artist name of Jean Gouyé, born the 18 July 1933 in Les Lilas who died the 23 May 2003 in Morsains...

 and Dominique Blanc

Dominique Blanc

Dominique Blanc is a French actress.She trained at the French Drama school, Cours Florent. In 1980 at the suggestion of Pierre Romans , in whose class she was, Patrice Chéreau went to see her and engaged her for a performance of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt...

.
At the outset of the film, Camille, a young girl from the Nguyen Dynasty (powerless under French colonial rule), is adopted by Éliane Devries after her parents die in a plane crash at the end of the 1910s.