The Buffalo Boy

(Mua len trau)

by Minh Nguyen-Vô

Vietnam

Director: Minh Nguyen-Vô

Script: Minh Nguyen-Vô after the collective works Huong Rung Ca Mau

Cinematographer: Yves Cape

Editor: Rudi Maerten

Sound: Marc Engels

Music: Tôn Thât Tiêt

Cast: Le The Lu, Nguyen Thi Kieu Trinh, Nguyen Huu Thanh, Kra Zan Sram, Truong Van Be, Nguyen Anh Hoa, Nguyen Thi Tham, Vo Hang Nhan

Production: Novak Prod, 3B Production, Hang Phim Giai Phong Coproduction

Distribution:
Tadrart Films
10 Passage des Taillandiers
75011 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.43.13.10.60
Fax: 0033 1.43.13.10.69
Mail: [email protected]
www.tadrart.com

Year: 2004

35 mm, Colour, 102 min, 
OV Vietnamese with French Subtitles

Official Selection Locarno Film Festival 2004
Golden Unicorn Amiens Film Festival

In 1940, Indochina is under the French Occupation. Fifteen-year-old Kim is given the responsibility to take his two buffalos far from the flooded lands in the south. These buffalos are all that the family owns, and they must reach the Bâ-Thé Mountain safe. During this dangerous journey through immense flooded lands, Kim learns how to live an adult life. He joins a group of buffalo shepherds, bandits in their spare time, and discovers a world of brawls, alcohol and looting. Progressively, this violence turns into friendship, love and the happi ness to be free.

“In Ca-Mau, one survives rather than lives. Floods are at the same time a disaster and a fertiliser. Water, which is often the symbol of life, is also to blame for death and decay. In order to survive, man has to constantly fight against the elements. Through Kim’s story, one can see the exhaustion of a way of living which still existed yesterday. It was my roots and is part of my history.”Minh Nguyen-Vo