Heretic has taken on world sales for “Hearing” (“Thính Giác”), the second feature from Vietnamese director Lê Bảo, which is set to screen in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
Written and directed by Lê Bảo, “Hearing” centers on Ninh, a mechanic whose job installing decibel meters in public spaces and private homes takes on a new dimension when rising sound levels begin to register as signals about the state of his personal life. Estranged from his ex-wife and young children while living with his mother, Ninh finds the distances between himself and those he loves measured in something harder to quantify than decibels.
A clip has been unveiled.
The film is an expansive international co-production spanning nine territories: Singapore, Vietnam, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand and Taiwan. Producers are Elizabeth Wijaya, Lai Weijie and Huỳnh Yến.
Lê Bảo’s debut, “Taste,” earned him the Encounters Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and established the self-taught filmmaker as one of the more singular voices working in Vietnamese cinema. “Hearing” reunites him with cinematographer Nguyễn Vinh Phúc and production designer Lê Văn Thanh. The editing team comprises Carlo Francisco Manatad and Dounia Sichov.
