DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
This film marks my first experimentation with the narrative genre, blending my queer perspective and personal experiences of love with family history and my hometown’s past. Its inspiration lies in my father's haunting 1980 notebook, a powerful memento from a friend deployed to Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese army to eliminate the remnants of the Pol Pot regime. His haunting plea—"In this world, killing is the greatest sin... Later, no matter what I’d become, please still, consider me your friend”—fuels my desire to honor lasting human connections. The film explores these bonds by pairing individuals and situating them in contrasting landscapes, while also subtly questioning portrayals of comradeship and patriotism. Timed with Vietnam's 50th reunification anniversary, it reflects the universal themes of separation, reunion, longing, and forgetting shared across generations. This notebook also features in my ongoing docufiction short, “Ngay Thang Khong Quen.”
FESTIVALS
