Vietnamese documentary gets best director award at Singapore film fest

By An Nguyen   December 9, 2018 | 03:33 am PT
Vietnamese documentary gets best director award at Singapore film fest
A scene from The Future Cries Beneath Our Soil, directed by Pham Thu Hang.
Pham Thu Hang has won the best director award for a postwar documentary at the Singapore International Film Festival.

The SGIFF award, given Saturday night, was for the documentary, The Future Cries Beneath Our Soil, which revolves around the postwar lives of four people in the central province of Quang Tri, the site of many clashes between Vietnamese and American forces.

After the war, to survive, the characters work for a gold mine and remove leftover bombs.

"When I was abroad, I thought of making a film related to the Vietnam War. The project kicked off in 2014 and was completed after four years," she said.

Pham Thu Hang (middle) at the Singapore International Film Festival. Photo by 

Pham Thu Hang (middle) at the Singapore International Film Festival. Photo by VnExpress/An Nguyen

Hang studied documentary filmmaking in Portugal, Hungary and Belgium. Before that, she was a researcher in Vietnam. Her next film is about leprosy patients.

Beside Hang, Dao Thi Minh Trang’s Never Been Kissed was awarded the Most Promising Project of the Southeast Asian Film Lab. The award carries a prize money of more than $2,000.

The movie is about two women who are best friends; and one of them has never tasted flavor of love.

The most sought after award, best picture, went to Singapore filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua for A Land Imagined, a movie about an insomniac policeman investigating the disappearance of a Chinese migrant worker.

The last movie by a Singapore filmmaker to win this prestigious award was August, by Eric Khoo.

SIFF also awarded Cambodian director Danech San with Southeast Asian short film award for A Million Years. Thai director Korakrit Arunanondchai received a special jury special mention.

SGIFF is the longest-running film festival in Singapore. Founded in 1987, the festival has a focus on showcasing international films and providing a global platform for the best of Singapore and Southeast Asian cinema.

The 29th SGIFF ran from November 28 till December 9.

 
 
go to top