Hearing. Photo: Sensory Ocean Films
In this tender and enigmatic anti-love story, Ninh drifts through a life shaped by quiet regret while working as a decibel technician. As he measures the sounds around him, he encounters unexpected disturbances, from restless spirits to unruly monkeys, revealing a world where grief, memory, and longing quietly resonate.
«Following his stylistically extraordinary first feature film Taste from 2021, the jury is truly captivated by the new and beautiful window the director is opening as a love letter to his family and the places close to his heart in Vietnam. With masterfully composed visuals, as in his previous film, the director explores the cycle of domestic violence that haunts his family relations from father to son. Through the main protagonist Ninh, working as a sound level technician, the director's special visual style is expanded to include a sensitive and powerful balance between image and sound. With his first feature being banned in his home country for addressing politically and socially sensitive issues, such as the treatment of minorities and women's rights, the jury finds it very important to support the artistic freedom of the director and his continued engagement with challenging realities in his own country»