Dear mom [OmeU] VN, 2024, R: Hà Lệ Diễm mit Lù Thị Sông, Lù A Đùa, 17 Min
The Girl from Dak Lak [OmeU] VN, SP, 2021, R: Pedro Román, Mai Huyền Chi mit Y Sương, Hạnh Ruby, Trần Thị Thanh Trúc, Huỳnh Thị Phương, Trần Khánh Sơn, 86 Min
Dear mom
EN: DEAR MOM traces the story of Song, a 11-year-old Hmong girl who for the past six years has been trying to come to terms with the absence of her mother while growing up in the mountains of northwestern Vietnam. In the form of a letter written by Song herself, the film offers a (hopefully initial) look at the emotional travails as well as social challenges that children struck by such unfortunate circumstances have to endure and yet somehow still try to overcome.
VI: Bộ phim kể câu chuyện về Sông, cô bé người Mông 11 tuổi suốt sáu năm qua đã cố gắng chấp nhận sự vắng mặt của mẹ để lớn lên ở vùng núi Tây Bắc Việt Nam. Dưới dạng một bức thư do chính Sông viết, bộ phim đưa ra cái nhìn về những khó khăn tình cảm và thách thức xã hội mà những đứa trẻ như vậy phải chịu đựng, nhưng bằng cách nào đó vẫn cố gắng vượt qua.
Director: Born into the Tay ethnic group of Northeastern Vietnam, Hà Lệ Diễm left her village aged 18 to study Journalism. Children of the Mist was her first feature-length documentary. It was shortlisted at the 95th Oscars and won Best Directing award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, among other accolades.
The Girl from Dak Lak
EN: Suong, a young girl from rural Vietnam, migrates to the bustling city of Saigon to work in a local eatery with two other migrant workers. Within the caging, barren walls of the eatery, their mornings are filled with repetitive tasks, and the rest of the day with vacuous, tedious hours. However, behind her veil of apathy, Suong battles a dilemma that she soon has to face with her family.
VI: Lấy cảm hứng từ câu chuyện có thật, bộ phim kể về Sương, một cô gái miền cao rời quê hương Đắk Lắk đến Sài Gòn tìm cơ hội đổi đời. Cô làm việc ở một quán ăn nhỏ và sống cùng với hai phụ nữ tỉnh lẻ khác. Đằng sau công việc lặp đi lặp lại, Sương sắp phải đối mặt với tình thế khó xử trong gia đình mình.
Directors:
Mai Huyền Chi is a Vietnamese writer-director working across fiction and documentary film. Her debut short documentary, Down the Stream (2015), filmed with a floating stateless community near the Vietnam–Cambodia border. Her short fiction film The River Runs Still (2024) was selected for the New York Asian Film Festival. Her documentary 50 Years of Forgetting (2025), commissioned by Al Jazeera, examines the politics of memory surrounding the Vietnamese-American War. Alongside film work, Chi initiated - edited the anthology On Forgetting, founded Cinema CNN (Cinema of Peasants), and co-founded Gái Tệ Residency for FLINTA filmmakers of Vietnamese descent.
Born and raised in Madrid, Pedro moved to London after finishing his degree in Media. It was in the British capital where he really started his filming career, working at a production company while developing a handful of shorts. He then moved to Ho Chi Minh City, where he developed his first feature film, The Girl from Dak Lak, with a clear intent to make a movie with only a script outline, non-professional cast, and a minimal crew.
Trailer: