Viêt and Nam

Nam and Viêt are miners, working underground where danger lurks and darkness reigns. When Nam wants to leave the country with a smuggler, his love for Viêt is called into question. At the same time, he is driven by the desire to reconcile himself with the ghosts of the past, the disappearance of his father during the war.

Documentary maker and artist, the filmmaker displays an embodied and sensual mastery of light and atmosphere: languid, faces blackened by labour and torsos glistening, Viêt and Nam are in a cave 1,000 metres underground, but the ceiling above the lovers looks like a starry sky because of the flakes of coal. As a contrast: the instinctive journey towards the sepulchral traces of war, unreal bodies scattered across the luxuriant jungle...

Between hypnotic beauty and suffocating violence, Trương Minh Quý exhumes collective memory to capture the essence of his country. Shot on 16mm film with palpable sensuality, a manifesto on the reconciliation of the homeland under a queer, radical banner.

Visions sud est / Suisse / Madeline Robert / info@visionssudest.ch