NUOC 2030 Review

UK Premiere

4 Star View of the future South Vietnam.

A film that is more Science future than Sci-Fi and perhaps that is the disturbing thing about this feature, set in a beautiful country that is now 80% covered in sea water from the effects of climate change.

Where people still live where they grew up on land, now they defend their territory with boats rather than cars and they still try and sell their “land” to big corporate businesses. People now fish rather than farm to feed themselves and their families.

Amongst these are Sao (Quynh Hoa, Saigon Electric) and Thi (Kim Long Thach, Tha Buffalo Boy) a married couple who have been trying for a baby for two years to no avail. But when he dies whilst apparently raiding a floating farm she starts to blame the boss of the farm, Giang (Quy Binh) someone she knew years ago before her marriage.

Sao with her dreams of running forever with the one she loves, hopes that the water will recede and all will go back to normal but as the waters rise, dwellings are submerged and she submerges her husbands coffin near their home as family return in the form of her brother-in-law Thanh (Hoang Phi Tran, Hai Chu Chau). She must find out what happened to her husband as we find out how Sao and Giang met.

Director, writer, producer: Minh Nguyen-Vo
Cinematographer, producer: Bao Nguyen
Cast: Quynh Hoa, Quy Binh, Thach Kim Long, Hoang Tran, Minh Duc

Part dystopian sci-fi, part mystery and part romance, this dreamlike second feature from Minh Nguyen-Vo (Buffalo Boy) is set in a not-too-distant future Vietnam where climate change has resulted in the submersion of over half the country’s farmland, leaving a population reliant on fishing from houseboats and floating farms owned by competing multinationals.

The plot centres on a young woman’s quest to discover the murderer of her husband, a self-sufficient farmer whose corpse is discovered floating in the water. The immediate suspect is an environmental scientist with whom she embarked on a passionate romance ten years before. Her journey towards the truth uncovers hints of a corporate cover-up involving potentially lethal genetically-modified food.

Boasting stunning underwater sequences, Nuoc 2030 is a beautifully shot and strikingly original voyage across erased landscapes, where memories from the past come bubbling to the surface.

To watch the trailer of NUOC 2030 click here.

Adults £10.50 Asia House Friends £8.50 Concessions £8

Tickets for NUOC 2030 should be purchased from Rich Mix directly here.

Full details of all the Asia House Film Festival films being screened at Rich Mix can be found here.

Rich Mix is situated at 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA. It is in the heart of Shoreditch and on the doorstep of Shoreditch High Street station. For details on how to get to Rich Mix click here.

This film is being screened as part of the Asia House Film Festival 2015. To read about all the films click here.