(Vietnam/France/2024 — directed by Trương Minh Quý)

Two young men work deep beneath the earth as coal miners—yet Việt and Nam are also lovers, sharing secret moments of physical pleasure before one embarks on a perilous journey to emigrate to another land. From this intimate story, captured with sensual detail and unflinching eroticism, Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý delves even deeper to unearth the memories and legacies of a nation. Set at the turn of the 21st century, the film resonates with echoes of the country’s war decades earlier, as Nam’s mother leads them on a pilgrimage to discover where his father was killed as a soldier. Shot in a graceful and mesmerizing style on 16mm—and banned in its home country—Việt and Nam is a quietly expressive, mind-bending work about two men with unsettled pasts and uncertain futures. In Vietnamese with English subtitles. (129 min.)

“Ravishing… a sad and sublimely beautiful movie.” —Justin Chang, The New Yorker