APM - Asian Project Market

 

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Director’s Profile

Ash Mayfair was born in Vietnam and received her MFA in Filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her feature debut, The Third Wife (2018), premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2018 and won the NETPAC Award. It also screened at Busan International Film Festival 2018, and won prizes at San Sebastian, Chicago, Cairo, Kolkata, Bangkok and other film festivals.

Synopsis

1998, in Saigon, San wants to make enough money for a sex-change operation that will fulfill her dream of living in a woman’s body. Her boyfriend, Nam, works as an underground dog-cage fighter to support this dream. The young couple is sucked into a vicious cycle of money and violence that eventually fractures their relationship. When San’s obsession creates distance between them, Nam seeks comfort with a young prostitute, Mimi, who ends up becoming pregnant. San must now find it in herself to forgive her lover and accept Mimi and the baby. Is it possible that in the society of 1990s Vietnam, a trans-person, a fighter, a prostitute and an old grandmother could conceivably come together, however briefly, to experience belonging and maybe even to raise a baby? This patchwork family barely finds a moment of peace when Nam’s rage against those who threaten them plunges everyone into yet another dangerous situation.

Achievements

Released in Japan

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