A scene in Nước 2030 by Vietnamese famed director Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh. The climate-themed film is being virtually screened on the website vimeo.com. Photo courtesy of the producers
HÀ NỘI — The latest film by Vietnamese famed director Nguyễn Võ Nghiêm Minh is available to rent on vimeo.com, giving film fans a chance to indulge in the work of the renowned director.
Entitled Nước 2030 (2030), Minh’s film is set in a fictional setting in which the south of Việt Nam is submerged in water.
The film was featured as part of the InterAsia Water(s) Graduate Conference, 2021 by Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University on Thursday. At this conference, the director also joined a Q&A session via Zoom with the audience.
It is not the first time Minh’s film has been featured in a seminar on climate change. In 2016, Nước 2030 was the opening film of European Climate Diplomacy Week. The director was also a speaker at a seminar at the event after the film was screened.
Minh is a Vietnamese-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He holds a PhD in physics and used to work as a lecturer before focusing on directing.
Nước 2030 was completed and premiered in 2013. In 2015, the film was re-introduced in HCM City during the 19th Việt Nam Film Festival.
The film was also featured in the 64th Berlin International Festival in 2014.
A combination of various cinematic elements like mystery, romance and drama, Nước 2030 is set in the vast and beautiful coastal regions of Việt Nam in the near future when water levels have risen due to global climate change.
South Việt Nam is one of the regions most affected by climate change, which causes as much as half the farmland to be swallowed by water. To subsist, people have to live on houseboats and rely solely on fishing with a depleting supply.
The story follows a young woman in her journey to find the truth about the murder of her husband whom she suspects was killed by the people of a floating farm.
In the process, she discovers the secret of that floating farm that employs genetic engineering technology to cultivate vegetables that can be grown using saltwater thus can be produced much cheaper. However, this untested technology can have dangerous health consequences for consumers that the farm wants to keep secret.
The women ends up finding out different versions of the truth about her husband’s death and has to make a dramatic decision without knowing the absolute truth.
This is the 65-year-old director’s third film after Mùa Len Trâu (Buffalo Boy) in 2004 and Khi Yêu Đừng Quay Đầu Lại (Don’t Turn Back When You Are In Love) in 2010.
He received many international accolades and awards for his directorial debut including the New Directors Silver Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Jury Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and Youth Jury Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. VNS
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