A name that cannot be ignored in the history of Vietnamese cinema, Đặng Nhật Minh has been known as one of the domestic directors with the most extensive and impressive film career so far. 

Growing up during the war, his creative career has always faced various difficulties throughout periods of the country, especially for a feature filmmaker like him. With his talent, Đặng Nhật Minh always finds ways to approach contemporary history that convey his personal stamp and sharp insight.

Starting with documentaries in 1965, he began making feature films in 1978 and has left his mark with works such as “When the Tenth Month Comes”, “The Return”, “Nostalgia for Countryland”, and “The Season of Guavas”. His films have brought about aesthetic impulses in the hearts of film art lovers and professionals. He has received many domestic and foreign awards, as well as lifetime achievement awards.

“Jasmine” was mentioned by Đặng Nhật Minh “as the last film in my cinema career”*, wherein he claimed to use “a MINIMALIST cinematic language that does not adhere to common stereotypes of film’s storytelling”. There was a certain awakening, or in other words, a step of enlightenment in this last film, inwhich he “minimized the superficial  conflict and drama” in order to make the film “as real as the natural flow of life.” 

In the context of an era when domestic and global issues are experiencing many negative mutations, the condition of the working class is always uncertain, “liquefied” and drifting. This is also the time when issues of identity and morality are constantly being questioned, but “Jasmine” reveals the enduring existence of Hanoi people’s identity and compassion.

Do the problems posed by “Jasmine” really still exist? If so, is it as “mystical” as in memory? And can we recognize the hidden conflict or drama that Đặng Nhật Minh has removed from the “surface”?

The director leaves some certain creativity up to each audience, letting them imagine what happens next with their own version.

*Excerpt from director Đặng Nhật Minh’s autobiography

*

About  Green Red & Yellow 2003 Open Archive

The “Green Red & Yellow” Open Archive was held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the event (2003 – 2023). This is an opportunity for professionals, creative practitioners as well as the public to access important information and documents of the project after two decades. Thereby understanding more about contemporary art practice in Vietnam during the exciting, dynamic “open-door” era under great impacts and changes in the economic, political, social, and ideological environment after the Doi Moi (or “renovation”) period.

Open Archive is part of the APD Art Library Project, initiated and implemented by the APD Centre for Art Patronage and Development starting in 2022 with the aim to promote research and the development of art education with documents collected, restored and archived in-depth and systematically in order to provide information about Vietnamese contemporary art to professionals and the public. Key activities of the Open Archive programme include online and in-person Open Archive, talks/seminars, and workshops with topics related to the archives of APD’s Art Library.