Xin chao!: Mekong delta film

Content includes films:
1/ Dat Phuong Nam (Southern land of Vietnam)

2/ Mua len trau (Buffalo boy or Gardien de buffles)

3/ Canh dong hoang (Deserted field)
4/ Canh dong bat tan (Endless ricefield or Floating lives)

1/ Dat Phuong Nam (Southern land of Vietnam) Overview

One of the best artful films about Mekong delta with great lovely song. The film tells you the story of An, a boy lost his mother, was on the way to look for his father who was a commuist party member fighting for the freedom of Vietnam during French colony period.

Follow his footsteps, you will understand more about the life of peasants and farmers during French colony period. Especially you will admire the beauty of Mekong delta scenery and "walk back" to your childhood (Riding water buffalo, swimming in the river, catching fish and bitten by leech, listen to the fishes "talking" , visiting kingdom of red-headed cranes listed in the red list, eating snake, cathcing crocodile...)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

2/ Mua len trau (Buffalo boy or Gardien de buffles)
Film director: Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh
Producer: Jean Bréhat

"...Buffalo Boy, Minh Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh's first feature, blends tradition, history and personal memories in a highly rewarding, epic narrative. Set in the lowlands of South Vietnam during the French occupation in 1940, the film follows the passage into adulthood of Kim (Le The Lu), a fifteen-year-old boy

in charge of herding two starving buffaloes to the high pastures of mounts Bâ-thé, far away from the massive flooding brought by the rainy season. In his harsh voyage through vast landscapes immersed in water, Kim discovers a male universe of violence, alcohol and deception, but also a world of freedom, virile friendship and solidarity – the world of the buffalo keepers. Enthralled by the nomadic life of these wretched brigands and in search of means of sustenance, Kim abandons his extremely poor family, but he will never forget his origins or his father. Using water as a powerful metaphor and a stunning visual device, Buffalo Boy has the mercurial pace of youth’s inner turmoil, turning Kim’s fight for freedom into an oblique reference to the country’s historical background. The flow of events that rules his life bears the same destructive yet regenerating force as the water: family ties and affections are flooded, swept away in a potent call for adulthood and kept secret at the bottom of a shallow marsh. Fascinating for its livid aesthetic and even for its rough-hewn structure, Buffalo Boy has the elemental appeal of a wonderfully woven tale of life and survival." (Toronto International Film Festival)

"....Ostensibly a coming-of-age story, this languorous, beautifully shot feature debut centers on a teenager whose journey from innocence to knowledge is also a twinned meditation on both the natural and very unnatural state of things......despite the overwhelming physical beauty of the landscape and the simplicity of his characters, he doesn't succumb to...aerated thinking. The world in "Buffalo Boy" is filled with wonder, but it is a world also filled with real desire, real death, not abstractions. (M. Dargis, The New York Times, March 2005)

Buffalo Boy has won several international awards such as Special Prize from the Young Jury (Locarno International Film Festival), New Directors Silver Hugo Award (Chicago International Film Festival), Licorne d’or (Golden Unicorn, Grand Prix – Amiens International Film Festival, France), and Premier Special Jury Award (Amazonas International Film Festival, Brazil).

-Vietnam, 2004, 102 min; Vietnamese with Eng subtitles

(Source: http://www.yale.edu/seas/BuffaloBoyFilm.html)