Director Duong allowed move to US

After months of negotiations and pleas from the Hollywood film community, the Vietnamese actor Don Duong has been allowed to leave his native country and move to the United States.

The 45-year old Vietnamese star, who won his country’s best actor award, was branded a traitor by his government for acting in two American films, We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson and Green Dragon with Patrick Swayze.

Vietnamese officials denounced Duong, contending the films “distort the legitimate war history and the humanity of the Vietnamese”.

In August the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture banned both films and seized Duong’s passport, threatening to prohibit him from leaving the country or practising his profession for five years.

Duong has been acting for 20 years and is a member of the Screen Actors’ Guild. His plight prompted Gibson, Swayze, Forest Whitaker, We Were Soldiers director Randall Wallace, Harvey Keitel and others in the Hollywood film community to rally behind him in a letter writing campaign.

He is due to arrive in California later this week with his wife and two sons.