Venue and date for the shorts programme TBC
Vietnam, 2021
Directed by
Viet Vu
Running time
26 minutes
In a post-colonial landscape on the brink of extinction, a son and his mother journey into a cave in search of metamorphic renewal. Blending fluid moving images with still photographs that flow like a stream of water, the film unfolds alongside a poem read throughout as a meditation on the landscape of a country once marked by Western colonisation.
Meet the director
Việt Vũ (Phạm Quang Trung) has completed a series of films and audio-visual projects across Vietnam, Portugal, Hungary, and Belgium. Working in experimental cinema, docufiction, and alternative narratives, his films uncover forgotten stories within shifting socio-political contexts, foregrounding queer themes and underrepresented communities. His practice often embraces first-person intimacy, fragments, found footage, and disrupted forms of representation. His works have been presented at major European and Asian film festivals, including Locarno, Rotterdam, and Tampere.
In 2018, his debut fiction short Ant-Man won the Most Promising Filmmaker from Southeast Asia Award at the 2nd SeaShorts Film Festival in Malaysia. In 2021, he directed the docufiction The Eternal Springtime, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2021 and qualified for an Oscars nomination after receiving the Best Documentary Award at the 66th International Cork Film Festival and Best Director at the Baku International Film Festival. In the same year, his experimental film My Own Room received the prestigious Wildcard Award from the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds (VAF, Belgium).
Viet earned a Master’s degree in Documentary Film Directing from DocNomads (European Erasmus Scholarship) in 2021 and was also selected as a Berlinale Talents alumnus the same year. Since September 2022, he has been doing a PhD in the Arts (Doctoral Fellowship) at ARIA/Sint Lucas Antwerpen (KdG) / University of Antwerp.
Meet the cast and crew
Starring
Nguyễn Thị Tơ
Phạm Quang Trung
Giàng A Pá
Giàng A Sưa
Hoàng Thị Tứ
Đỗ Hà Thu
Producers
Dương Diệu Linh
Việt Vũ
Production consultants
Phạm Thị Hồng Ánh
Phan Đăng Di
Writer and editor
Việt Vũ
Assistant director
Chu Ánh Nguyệt
Sound engineer and sound equipment
Quảng Khổng
Cinematographer
Huy Phùng
Camera equipment
HANOI DOCLAB
Line producer
Bùi Thu Hương
Assistant producer
Đỗ Thăng Long
Medics
Trần Xuân Trường
Hoàng Văn Vui
