When one mentions « Vietnamese cinema » it is usually with Tran Anh Hung ou Tony Bui in mind. But At the Height of Summer is a French film and Three Seasons an American one.

Vietnamese cinema remains largely unknown. Only a small number of festivals and rare distributors have been able to offer a few films to audiences in a few countries around the world, the bulk of Vietnamese cinema has stayed in its homeland.

This cinema, lacking resources and marked by socialist realism, came into existence during wartime and established itself in close connection with the national identity. But over the last twenty years two events have had a disrupting effect on cinematic production : The Vietnam’s “opening” in 1986 and the return of filmmakers of Vietnamese origin to the country.

The work of Viet Linh and that of Dang Nhat Minh have won the recognition they deserve, but this notoriety must not hide either the solemnity of traditional films or the vitality of the more modernist ones. Profound or superficial, these films – of heritage and of the future – are not distributed.

This work aims to cast some light upon the subject. The following collection of articles assembles varying perspectives as an introduction to Vietnamese cinema and with the intention of bringing it out of the shadows.

This book comes with a DVD (2 hours of interviews with english and french subtitles)