A Short Film About Loving by director Dam Chi Duc tells the story of young lovers being abruptly separated due to the global pandemic, and will be screened at Ơ Kìa Hà Nội, within the campus of the University of Industrial Fine Arts.

The A Short Film About Loving poster for the premiere. Photo Dam Chi Duc

When COVID-19 broke out, students from more than 80 countries in an international school in India, the director included, were forced to return to their home country, turning their last semester into unfinished plans and broken promises.

Facing that separation, the characters of the fictional film expose their most vulnerable self through dialogues -- and monologues -- about love. Despite different backgrounds, languages, and religions, they all converse through the language of affection: suffering, appreciation, losing hope, and creating hope.

The film has been featured in the Official Selection of 2020 Cannes Indie Shorts Awards and will premiere this Saturday.

“The self-portraying characters and their candid world of montage, to me, makes A Short Film About Loving a documentary within a fiction. This makes the piece important in capturing what it is like to have a sentimental belonging – to a place, a community, or simply a person – in a time that is already so divisive," Duc said.

The director hopes the 40-minute film will create a space in which people can sit together and infuse in a melancholic yet soothing sonata of love.

After the screening, the audience will have the chance to engage in a small discussion about the film with director Duc, hosted by director Nguyen Hoang Diep.

This will be followed by an open-mic poetry space, where the audience can feel free to write and share their stories surrounding the theme of love. VNS

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