The Girl on the River
(Cô gái trên sông)

The war is over, but in a now reunified Vietnam many are struggling to find their place. This is the case for Nguyêt who before 1975 made a living prostituting herself on a sampan. Having had, at the time, rescued a revolutionary soldier who had promised her a new life after the South had been liberated, she waited in vain for the one she chose to love after she was discharged from the rehabilitation centre she had been committed to. Going from hope to disillusionment, she resigns herself to marrying one of her old clients, from lowly origins like herself. Dang Nhat Minh’s ambition puts his film among the most memorable of the late 1980s. An unmissable piece. Jérôme Baron