Vietnamese movie earns Special Jury Award at Berlinale

"A fearlessly clear composed and choreographic abstraction of social relations, using very concrete building blocks - slum architecture, football rules, cooking, the weight of human bodies - to construct a field of tensions, as stable as it is nervous, between a type of ascetic emancipation and dystrophic regression," the jury said about the only Vietnamese entry in the festival.

Bao, an independent and first-time filmmaker, expressed his gratitude to the crew of ‘Vi’ after earning the award.

"The memories I have of the time we made the movie, they are all treasures. I am happy to have people by my side. Each of us is a part of the movie."

A still from "Vi" (Taste). Photo courtesy of Berlinale.

The film depicts a slum in Ho Chi Minh City, where a Nigerian footballer moves in with four middle-aged Vietnamese women after his team is liquidated.

Bao got the idea for the film years ago based on his memories of seeing black men in buses while going to school.

It earlier won the Most Potential Project award at the 2020 Singapore International Film Festival.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 71st Berlinale took place online.

The Encounters section, though competitive, supports new voices in cinema and gives room for diverse narrative and documentary forms.

Each winner receives a golden bear figurine.