Juliet Bảo Ngọc Doling (left) and Phương Anh Đào in a still from the movie

HÀ NỘI — Award-winning movie Tro Tàn Rực Rỡ (Glorious Ashes) by Bùi Thạc Chuyên is set to premiere in cinemas nationwide on December 2. 

Chuyên's movie won the top prize in the Golden Balloon award (Montgolfière d'or) at the Festival des 3 Continents 2022 in Nantes, France, on Monday. The award put the director's name and Vietnamese cinema on the international cinema map.

"The movie crew and I are very happy to win the top prize at the festival," Chuyên said.

"It is a prestigious and long-history film festival. The award-competing movies are good. Established directors such as Japanese Hirozaku Koreeda and Taiwanese Hou Hsiao-hsien competed at the festival."

Glorious Ashes beat nine other movies to win the 44th edition. The list of the award winners is a who's-who of Asian cinema. 

The movie story is set in Thơm Rơm poor village in the southernmost Cà Mau Province. It tells the stories of three women and how they try to keep their men. 

Pregnant Hậu marries the taciturn fisherman Dương, but he is madly in love with Nhàn, who had chosen to marry Tam. The two couples, soon to become two families, are neighbours living on either side of the canals that run through the village, between the lagoon and the mangrove.

Hà Nội-based Chuyên spent two years on the script-writing, adapting it from two short stories by Cà Mau native Nguyễn Ngọc Tư. He also invites the author to write dialogues aimed at the typical characteristics of southern culture.

Before the script writing, the director went to the western area of the Mekong River Delta to get to know about the land, people and southern culture.  

Glorious Ashes features Juliet Bảo Ngọc Doling, Phương Anh Đào and veteran Hạnh Thúy filming the three female characters. 

The director met Bảo Ngọc when she was just 13, and the movie was shot five years later when the actor was the right age for the role. 

The movie is about the return of Chuyên to the silver screen after a ten-year break. He is popular with award-winning Sống Trong Sợ Hãi (Living in Fear) with the Asian New Talent Prize for Best Film at the 2006 Shanghai International Film Festival and Chơi Vơi (Adrift) FIPRESCI Prize Award at Venice Film Festival.

Chuyên won the Silver Kite Award in the Document Category of Việt Nam Cinema Association for his film Không Sợ Hãi (No Fear). 

Glorious Ashes became the first Vietnamese film to feature in the Competition Section of the 35th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF)  from October 24 to November 2.

Love is very special in Tư's short stories, according to Chuyên. 

"I feel the positivity of these lovers. That's because when a woman is in love, nothing can stop them," Chuyên said at the press conference at TIFF. 

Glorious Ashes movie crew at Tokyo International Film Festival 2022. Photo TIFF

To raise funds for the movie production, its producer, Trần Thị Bích Ngọc, and Chuyên introduced the project at prestigious international film festivals such as Cannes, Busan and Singapore International Film Festival.

It overcame 27 other film projects worldwide to win the US$15,000 prize in the Asian Project Market Category at the Busan Awards in 2017. It also won nearly $200,000 from the Inaugural Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant of the Singapore Film Commission and received support from Singaporean producer Jeremy Chua.

The movie will be screened at CGV cinemas nationwide with English subtitles. — VNS