Vietnamese movie wins project award at Busan film festival

Her maiden effort received the ArteKino International Award and €6,000 ($6,966) in cash.

It will be allowed to be screened in on the website of the online ArteKino Festival in Europe to held through Dec.

‘If Wood Could Cry, It Would Cry Blood’ is adapted from the autobiographical novel ‘Tam Van Phong Dao’ (rough translation: A Board for Daggers) by famous comedian Mac Can.

The movie depicts his life growing up as the middle child in a family that ran a traveling circus. The film centers on the three siblings who perform the famous knife-throwing act. Ba, the main character, a quirky 14-year-old boy is the one who holds the wooden board into which his older brother, Hai, throws the knives. To add extra thrill to the performance, their little sister, Tu, stands in front of the board. His brother′s talent and his little sister′s fearlessness create the blueprint for a tragedy waiting to happen.

Director Nguyen Phan Linh Dan. Photo courtesy of Dan

The festival website says: "At its core, this is a coming-of-age story, exploring identity and one’s place as an individual within a family and society. The movie unveils the world inside Ba’s head as he attempts to save his sister from the inevitable fate he has foreseen in his dreams, under the financial pressures of their family life and the political pressures of a country at war."

The movie’s trailer and stills have not been released yet.

Dan studied film and TV production at the New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. She became the first Vietnamese woman cinematographer for a Vietnamese movie, ‘Bi Mat Cua Gio’ (Secrets of the Wind), which premiered at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival.

The Asian Project Market links new film projects with global film investors, producers and distributors.

This year’s event took place from Oct. 12 to 14, with 25 projects from 14 countries and territories in contention. Seven were given different awards in the event.

In 2020, ‘Tick It’ by Tran Thanh Huy won an award at the APM.