VietNamNet Bridge – Phung Hoa Hoai Linh, the 12-year-old actress in “Mother’s Soul,” the latest product by reputed director Nhue Giang, has won the Best Actress Award at the Dubai Film Festival, which closed on December 14.


Director Nhue Giang (second from the right) receives the award on behalf
of little actress Hoai Linh.


This is the second time Vietnam received this award from the Dubai Film Festival. In 2008, actress Hong Anh took the award for her role in director Nguyen Vinh Son’s “Trang Noi Day Gieng” (The moon in the bottom of the well).

Hong Anh plays the mother of the little girl played by Hoai Linh in “Mother’s Soul.”

As the little girl was busy at school, she could not go to the United Arab Emirates to attend the festival. Director Nhue Giang received bonus of $8,000 from the organizing board for Linh.


Hoai Linh in "Mother's Soul".





Hong Anh and Hoai Linh in "Mother's Soul".

This is the 8th Dubai Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in Asia. The organizing board presented awards for two categories: Arabian films and Asian-African films.

Vietnam’s “Mother’s Soul” competed in the second category with 14 other entries.

“Mother’s Soul,” produced by the Vietnam Feature Film Studio, was nurtured in 20 years by director Nhue Giang. The movie is based on a same-name short story written by Nguyen Huy Thiep in the late 1980s. It is about a mother and her daughter who live in a tent amid the Red River in Hanoi.


Director Nhue Giang and actress Hoai Linh.


“Mother’s Soul” is one of the 17 feature films competing at the ongoing 17th Vietnam Film Festival in Tuy Hoa city, Phu Yen province. The move was screened in Hanoi on December 6.

Director Nhue Giang has returned to Vietnam to participate in the festival on December 16. “Mother’s Soul” is considered a big nominee for the Gold Lotus Award.

Bich Hanh