Truong Minh Quy’s deeply romantic and blissful gay love story between coal miners is an evocative cinematic experience. We were delighted to interview the director of Viet and Nam, presented at Cannes 77.
Truong Minh Quy’s made his Cannes debut in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with his lyrical film, Việt And Nam. A love story about two coal miners, Viet (Duy Bao Dinh Dao) and Nam (Thanh Hai Pham), the two grapple with Vietnam historical landscape from its war to the present-day issues revolving around a gay relationship and displacement.
Centered around a gentle love story between two coal miners in 2001, Truong’s complex storytelling weaves through contemporary societal issues such as queer stories, class disparity, and rural life to Vietnam’s history, namely the American War. Through elliptical jumps through time and memory, Truong’s sensory evocation works in favor with the film’s locations. Underground coal mines, shipping containers, the sea, and the forest are some of the many locations that Truong utilizes to further investigate a poetic and cinematic language that veers through the many possibilities that cinema can offer.
We had the great pleasure to sit that and talk with Truong on his blissful and sensuous film during the Cannes Film Festival
Michael Granados: How did this film first come to be? When did you start the process and what prompted it?
Truong Minh Quy: I started the script treatment at the end of 2019. The film is a continuation of my cinematic concerns about memory, home, family history, gay stories, and saying goodbye. But this film takes a different approach to form. It’s my first full, complete fiction film. And then, there’s this ambition to try to bring in the theme of everything possible about Vietnam.
It’s not because I wanted to make this film to say goodbye to this subject matter. There’s this preconceived struggle of being a filmmaker in Vietnam. There have been many films about the Vietnam war. At the same time, it feels normal to talk about it, but there’s a struggle because you want to find this inner freedom as an artist.
I wanted to make this film with several things from the Vietnamese point of view such as work, social issues, and the landscape. For instance, the film is called Viet and Nam. We never know the two main character’s names, but we can deduce it from the title. There’s something paradoxical about it and the film should be viewed from this view.
And lastly, there’s an emotional response to the 39 Vietnamese migrants’ death of the Essex Lorry trafficking tragedy. I didn’t want to make an adaptation of those deaths, but to try to understand that event in a more complex cinematic approach.
Michael Granados: How did you film the mining scenes? Were they shot on location?
Truong Minh Quy: So, there are the two parts of the coal mine in the film. First, is the underground which we filmed at a real coal mining company. Then, for the other underground scene where Viet and Nam have their private conversations, we had to build a set in a cave.
Michael Granados: Interesting, can you talk about the specific imagery in the cave during the dialogue scenes because the range of black with the sparkling particles create a cosmic atmosphere evoking many emotions?
Truong Minh Quy: It’s there, in the real location. When I was scouting the coal mine, I can see how beautiful it is. You can see thousands of sparkling particles and that idea of the dark was the most important element when I wanted to film in the coal mine. There’s almost no light, so I wanted to take advantage of the darkness.
Also, for the set design, we didn’t want to show too much because we didn’t have much money, but wanted to show how the darkness enhance the feeling, imagination, and the poetry of it all.
Michael Granados: Did you always have in mind to shoot in 16mm?
Truong Minh Quy: Yes, this is my fourth film I shot in 16mm. I think it’s very nice because I don’t see anything when we were shooting because there’s no monitor. I just feel.
Michael Granados: What was the decision for the coal miners as the choice of subject? The parallels between its occupation and the underground digging of the remnants from the war is striking.
Truong Minh Quy: The choice for the characters being coal miners was because I found it poetic in the image of people going inside the earth in the dark to search for something. And naturally, they go to the past as coal is a fossilization of millions of years.
Michael Granados: Since this is your first full fiction film, how has your documentary background informed you for this process?
Truong Minh Quy: During the casting process, it had to reflect the theme. I casted non-professional actors based on their relationship to my film. For example, the mother made coal in the past and her husband was a veteran. In that sense, it is quite documentary, because sometimes, you don’t care about the real life of the actor, you just ask for their expression.
Michael Granados: So, do you do the writing before the casting or does the casting inform the script?
Truong Minh Quy: It’s both. I have the script and when I meet the actors, I adjust the script based on how I talk with the actors and their stories. For example, the veteran told me how he lost his arm and through that story, I rewrote his testimony to match the feeling in the film.
Michael Granados: I read in your interview with Filmmaker Magazine that your film is banned in Vietnam. Is there any specific reason why?
Truong Minh Quy: I think my film is direct and honest. Through my approach, I wanted to make an honest and transparent film in terms of emotions, in terms of what I want to see, and what I want the audience to see. There’s no hiding.The way they interpret the film is too extreme. For me, it is fine because they are also a normal audience and as an audience, they are privileged to see this film (or any film) any way they want. The filmmaker doesn’t need to justify anything. But because they have this authority, they chose to ban this film.
Explore our exclusive coverage of the 77th Cannes Film Festival here.
