MY VIETNAM
Plus an interview with directors Hien Mai and Tim Ellrich and Dr. Anne O’Brien, Maynooth University
Director: Hien Mai and Tim Ellrich
70 minutes. Germany, Austria. 2020. Language: Vietnamese. Subtitled. Colour. Documentary
Official Competition, Film Festival Max Ophuls Preis 2021; Hot Docs 2020
Vietnamese couple Bay (Thi Bay Nguyen) and Tam (Trung Tam Mai) escaped on a fishing boat 30 years ago leaving Vietnam for Germany to start a new life. Working as office cleaners by night, their daytime is spent connecting with family and friends via Skype and karaoke chatrooms. They can scarcely afford living in Germany and can never save enough to visit home. Their house in Vietnam is being cared for by a family member while they dream of returning one day. But the house is destroyed by a typhoon, throwing the whole country into chaos. Tam realises ‘Every cent we earned is gone’…
Hien Mai co-directs with simple directness this deeply resonant documentary, dedicated to her parents. As Covid pandemic viewers we are able to understand a little of the struggle of remoteness, while for Bay and Tam everyday life is trapped between the virtual and a distant world out of reach.
About Thi Hien Mai
Born in Germany in 1989, Thi Hien Mai studied Art History and Art Education at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. After being artist liaison for the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and assistant in various cultural management projects, she is now working at Deutsches Filminstitut und Filmmuseum and also as a flight attendant for Lufthansa. In this balance between these different fields, she deals with the question of making cultural heritage more accessible and visible for everyone. Mein Vietnam is her first cinematic work in collaboration with director Tim Ellrich.
About Tim Ellrich
Born in Germany in 1989, Tim Ellrich is a German filmmaker. After some traineeships at professional film productions, he began to produce his own films and moved to Vienna, where he studied Philosophy and Theatre, Film and Media Studies. He is currently studying Fiction Directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. While studying, he founded the production company, Coronado Film with Leopold Pape.
