Section: Focus

Farewell Halong

Farewell Halong

Đức Ngô Ngọc
Germany, 2016, 99 Min

Fear and suspicion of impending resettlement spreads amongst the inhabitants of a floating village in the Ha Long Bay area. The cloud hanging over life in the midst of this idyll of lush green islands and sheer cliffs is due to a resettlement programme in the north of Vietnam, instigated back in 2014 in order to promote conservation and tourism.

42film GmbH

Many families have now lived in these floating villages for several generations. They live in wooden houses built on rafts and make ends meet through a combination of fish farming and services aimed at the local tourism industry. Awareness of the impending resettlement brings back memories, as the locals recall tales of poverty, community, strokes of fate and ultimately the building of independent livelihoods. Despite the government’s promises of financial compensation and housing, these individuals view the prospect of a future on the mainland with both mistrust and sorrow. Yet how will they fare far from home and the waters with which their livelihoods have hitherto been so intimately connected? Does life on the mainland really bring greater prosperity and security? The huge economic advances witnessed in socialist Vietnam over recent decades raise the spectre of an uncertain future for the inhabitants of the floating islands. DD

Filmformat
DCP | Doc. | Farbe / colour
Kamera
Phạm Ngọc Lân
Ton
Florian Marquardt
Schnitt
Gudrun Steinbrück, Tiến Đạt Nguyễn
Musik
Martin Kohlstedt
Produzent
Eike Goreczka, Christoph Kukula
Produktion
42film GmbH
Kontakt
42film GmbH
Sabina Urbanska
Geiststraße 49
06108 Halle
Germany
+49.94.54.78.18 48
www.42film.de
sabina@42film.de
Đức Ngô Ngọc

Đức Ngô Ngọc - born in 1988 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Moved to Berlin at the age of five. He studied Mediengestaltung/Medienkunst at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and is a co-founder of „KAMMER11 Filmkollektiv“. Since 2015 he is studying directing at Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF.

Movies
WIE MAN EIN ROHR VERLEGT (2012, short, doc)
ENTWURZELT (2014, short)
RESEARCH REFUGEES (2016, doc)
OBST & GEMÜSE (2017, short)