The Czech Republic has the third-largest Vietnamese diaspora in Europe, solely behind Germany and France. The truth is, the Vietnamese make up the third-largest ethnic minority within the nation after Slovaks and Ukrainians. Now, this neighborhood is buzzing about its probability to be represented and make its presence felt on the silver display screen. In spite of everything, Tuesday, July 8, marks the world premiere of Dužan Duong’s Summer time College, 2001 within the Particular Screenings program of the 59th version of the Karlovy Fluctuate Worldwide Movie Competition (KVIFF).
Or as KVIFF put it: “The long-awaited first Czech-Viet function is lastly right here! This genuine portrayal of a neighborhood that has grow to be an natural a part of fashionable Czech historical past is delivered to us courtesy of Dužan Duong, a standout, exceptionally proficient consultant of the primary Vietnamese technology to develop up within the Czech Republic.”
Here’s a synopsis of the film: “The third millennium has hardly begun, and 17-year-old Kien together with his loopy pink hair returns to his household and their market stall in Cheb after 10 years spent in Vietnam. Nevertheless, as an alternative of the nice and cozy welcome he had anticipated, he finds an estranged father, a careworn mom, and a youthful brother who doesn’t minimize him any slack.”
Prague-based Duong, 34, wrote the screenplay for his function directorial debut with Jan Smutný and Lukáš Kokeš. Duong and Kokeš are the producers of the film. Its forged contains Đoàn Hoàng Anh, Lê Quỳnh Lan, Tô Tiến Tài, Bùi Thế Duong, Ngô Xuân Thắng, and Nguyễn Dũng.
“Instructed with lightness and wit, this story about cross-generational battle and far else in addition to is an affectionate and daring milestone within the debate on cultural id,” the KVIFF web site touts.
Forward of the world premiere of Summer time College, 2001, Duong talked to THR concerning the inspiration for the movie, showcasing the Vietnamese expertise within the Czech Republic to a wider viewers, pulling double responsibility in Karlovy Fluctuate by additionally pitching an anime sequence thought, and what else he desires to do subsequent.
Are you able to perhaps share your loved ones’s story and the way your dad and mom got here to the Czech Republic?
My dad and mom met in Germany throughout the Chilly Battle. They had been despatched from Vietnam to Germany to work. They met in a manufacturing facility. They usually conceived me there. When that period ended, they’d to return to Vietnam. So I used to be born in Vietnam. After three, 4 years, we went from Vietnam to the Czech Republic. And that is the story of many of the Vietnamese neighborhood within the Czech Republic. We’ve related paths.
In Summer time College, 2001, a younger man returns to his household within the Czech Republic after years again in Vietnam. Are you able to discuss concerning the function id performs within the movie?
Once I was only a small child, my dad and mom needed to go to this market to earn cash, as a result of they’d some money owed in Vietnam. As a result of we went from Vietnam to the Czech Republic, they needed to mortgage some cash. So I needed to develop up with a Czech nanny and Czech granddad, truly, they usually had been my substitute dad and mom for a really very long time. My dad and mom needed to work rather a lot throughout my childhood. So I used to be rising up with this previous Czech couple. They made me the Czech individual I’m.
They taught me the tradition and every little thing. That’s the explanation I really feel by some means break up in my persona – being Czech or Vietnamese. It’s very laborious to be Vietnamese if you don’t get to fulfill your dad and mom in on a regular basis conditions and spend most of your time with Czech individuals. In order that’s step one in my story about this damaged relationship with one’s dad and mom.
‘Summer time College, 2001’
Courtesy of KVIFF
The family members within the movie appear to expertise this mixture of feelings, together with responsibility, respect, and love. Speak a bit concerning the many layers of those relationships within the movie and the way you approached them.
To be sincere, it’s simply my household and plenty of different Vietnamese households packed into one movie. We prefer to name it “auto-fiction,” as a result of all of it comes from the actual world of the Vietnamese neighborhood within the Czech Republic. So most of it’s based mostly on actuality. However we added some drama for the movie.
Can I ask how tough it was to finance the movie?
It truly wasn’t that arduous, as a result of now we have a manufacturing firm, and we concentrate on shorts and commercials. So we had a base of individuals and didn’t want that a lot of cash. We might depend on lots of people with good intentions and good hearts who needed to make this, I’d say, milestone in Czech cinema. This sort of Vietnamese movie from the Czech Republic has by no means been performed earlier than. So we had been very fortunate to be at first of what’s going to hopefully be this new wave.
What suggestions have you ever acquired from the Vietnamese neighborhood within the nation earlier than individuals have even seen the movie? What do they consider the concept there shall be a function about their expertise?
Oh, they find it irresistible. I actually really feel such enormous assist from the neighborhood. It’s not common for a debut movie to be hyped this a lot. The facility of neighborhood! The movie hasn’t premiered but, so I’m fairly nervous about it. I don’t wish to make anyone sad after they end watching the movie. The stakes are excessive for us.
Will your loved ones see the film?
Yeah, most of my household will see it for the primary time, wow. And I’m actually trying ahead to seeing their faces. In our household, and generally in Vietnamese households, communication isn’t the most important factor. Our Vietnamese dad and mom don’t know the Czech language that properly. So this movie is a means for me to inform them every little thing I’ve been via in my complete life. And I seen throughout the shoot that many points of the movie occur to be common, as a result of many younger individuals from the forged had been going via related issues.
Dužan Duong, Courtesy of KVIFF
How lengthy did you’re employed on the film?
It was actually encouraging for me to complete the movie after eight years. We had been within the writing room for fairly some time – 5, six years. And as soon as we obtained the primary funding, I didn’t wish to await something. I went all in and persuaded the opposite producers that we wanted to make it now, as a result of I discovered a very good forged, and its members had been rising up. So if we had been ready for an additional yr, I’d have needed to discover different actors.
Who’re the individuals within the forged? Are they skilled actors, and the way did you discover them?
The younger boy within the household is from my neighborhood. I’ve recognized him since he was little. His household runs the grocery retailer proper down from my condominium. He was all the time this communicative younger boy who needed to have enjoyable. He jogged my memory of me a bit of bit, so I assumed I’m going to forged him. I simply glided by coronary heart. I didn’t wish to have many choices. As soon as I felt he was the appropriate individual, I went for him.
Many of the actors are first-time actors. I prefer to work this manner. I’m all the time searching for somebody who’s genuine and who doesn’t have to “act.” He simply must be reminded of his personal traumas or his story. And he simply must act it out in entrance of the digital camera.
Was there any significantly massive problem in making this film?
To be sincere, the most important problem was within the enhancing room. We made fairly an enormous chunk of it occur within the enhancing room. As a result of non-professional actors don’t care if they appear good on digital camera, we had some distinctive takes and needed to discover and put collectively the appropriate materials. We’ve been within the enhancing room for nearly 13 months. It was fairly painful, however I wouldn’t change that.
The three males within the household every get a chapter within the movie. The mom doesn’t have her personal chapter, however she continues to be all the time there. Are you able to clarify that call and the function of the mom?
For me, it’s a narrative about how one can be a person, searching for manhood. And these guys are wild. Each one among them is wild. The one one that is by some means calm is the mom. She is the calm pressure attempting to make sense of the mess that’s taking place. So she’s essential to the story. I needed to maintain this masculine viewpoint, however I used the feminine vitality to make sense of it.
‘Summer time College, 2001’
Courtesy of KVIFF
Inform me about your manufacturing firm and the opposite key manufacturing agency on the movie…
AZN kru is my manufacturing firm. I run it with my spouse. So, it’s a bit of household enterprise. We’ve been doing commercials and every little thing, and now we’re transitioning to options and fiction, and we wish to make a splash within the Czech Republic. The opposite firm is my pal’s and is named nutprodukce. They’re properly established within the Czech Republic, so we will use their credit score to get funding. All of the creativity got here from our facet, together with the Vietnamese facet. They usually supplied the right dramaturgy and the know-how to fund a low-budget movie. We introduced the know-how of Vietnamese individuals, how to economize, and nonetheless have the manufacturing worth.
The place did you shoot?
My greatest dream was to shoot it in Cheb, the city the place I grew up, close to the border with Germany. However our funds didn’t permit that. So we needed to pretend every little thing in Prague. Once you see Netflix and Amazon capturing these massive TV reveals in Prague, they’ll pretend it. So we will pretend it as properly. We simply faked the small city and shot 23 days in Prague and Slovakia and 5 days in Vietnam.
Is there the rest you’d like to say about Summer time College, 2001?
Within the movie, Kien is shipped again to Vietnam by his dad and mom after which is reunited with them after 10 years. I’d spotlight that it is a quite common factor in Vietnamese immigrant tradition. That’s the best way dad and mom have the time and their palms free to work.
Through the capturing course of, I noticed that this concept of sending youngsters away was bizarre for Czech individuals. However for the Vietnamese individuals, it’s a typical factor. It additionally occurred to me once I was younger, like 5 or 6 years previous. However I used to be fortunate that my Czech nanny by some means persuaded my father to carry me again after a few months.
anime sequence ‘Misplaced Boys’
Courtesy of KVIFF
You aren’t solely premiering your first function on the competition, but in addition pitching Misplaced Boys, an anime sequence that you’re engaged on, once more through AZN and nutprodukce. You might be pitching that within the KVIFF Abilities program. Congratulations on having the vitality to current two tasks in Karlovy Fluctuate! And what are you able to share about Misplaced Boys and its inspiration?
The work ethic, I believe, I inherited from my dad and mom, as a result of I don’t like to simply stand nonetheless and do nothing. That is my subsequent challenge. I’ve a bit of sister who is eighteen years youthful. She’s Gen Z, and I’d say I’m a millennial. And I seen that these youngsters are so reliant on know-how and social media, and it’s consuming them. I believe it’s the most important drawback for this technology, being caught in know-how. They don’t know what the offline world is. They solely know the net.
Misplaced Boys is the story of a woman who’s looking for her escape or exit from this matrix. She finds a gaggle of boys who get into fights. They prefer to really feel the realness of the fights. And he or she desires to hitch them, however they don’t settle for her, as a result of she’s a woman. “We settle for solely boys, as a result of we’re the Misplaced Boys.” And so she alters her outfit, and he or she turns into a boy. She turns into Kenny and desires to hitch the group so she will be able to lastly be completely happy and really feel one thing. I’d say it’s like Combat Membership for Gen Z.