"Buffalo Boy"
2004
Directed by Nghiem-Ming Nguyen-Vo

A luminous coming-of-age story set in the Mekong Delta of the 1930s, Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo's festival award-winning drama is based on a cycle of short stories by Nam Son. The film follows a teenager (Le The Lu) as he joins a band of nomadic buffalo herders and gets introduced to a world of crime, violence, and romance. The youngster's adventures are set against the achingly beautiful backdrop of mid-century Vietnam, with its rolling landscapes and lush, exhilarating colors. "The world in Buffalo Boy is filled with wonder, but it is a world also filled with real desire, real death, not abstractions" (Manohla Dargis, The New York Times). Vietnamese with English subtitles.  96 minutes.