Việt and Nam
Dir. Trương Minh Quý Vietnam / Philippines / France / Netherlands / Italy / Germany / Singapore 2024 124’ (adv. 18)
16mm transferred to digital video | Vietnamese with English subtitles
Young miners Nam and Việt are in love. But theirs is a world of poverty and hardship, and the impossibility of staying and starving mean that the opportunity to leave, when it eventually presents itself in the form of a people smuggler, threatens to tear them apart. The coal mine, dark and dangerous, nonetheless becomes a sanctuary of sorts in which time stands still while they cling to the time that they have left together.
Shot on 16mm, Trương Minh Quý’s film – now banned in Vietnam itself – offers a tactile, sensual experience of dust, sparkling coal, rain and heat, the lovers’ bodies gleaming in the blackness of the mine. With Vietnam’s troubled history never far away, and the material reality of the young men’s lives a constant reminder of the urgency of migration, hope somehow persists despite all.
‘A sensitive, transfixing drama that further showcases the talents of one of Vietnam’s most exciting modern filmmakers.’ — IndieWire
Part of Baltic Cinema’s Currents strand, presenting new films from across the world.
Level 1 Cinema
Doors open 6.30pm; Film starts 6.45pm. Baltic Kitchen is open until 6.30pm for drinks, which you are welcome to take up to the cinema.
