Asian Five Flavors Festival: Under the roof of Ky Nam

TypeGreat Hall

Hour

20.11

|

January 20 |

FOCUS: VIETNAM

Post-war Saigon, 1985 year. A young translator from the North Khang arrives in the city to prepare a new translation of “The Little Prince”. He moves into an old, bustling tenement house where he meets Ky Nam, an older widow who runs an intimate diner. When a woman gets into an accident, Khang offers to help her in the kitchen. Cooking together and sharing meals is gradually breaking down the wall that has surrounded Ky Nam, allowing her to face the unworked mourning and shadows of the past. Despite the differences that divide the protagonists: age, origin and life experience, a deep feeling is born between them. A relationship marked by social taboo, flourishing under the watchful eye of neighbors, becomes for them a coveted respite from overwhelming loneliness.

The second feature film by Leon Lê, the author shown at the Five Flavors “Song lang”, premiered at the Toronto festival. Set in the realities of post-war social divisions between former Southerners and newcomers from the North, it is a nostalgic tribute to the city of the director's childhood. The film was shot entirely on 35 mm tape.

(Lucyna Szczykutowicz)

Language: Vietnamese with Polish and English subtitles

UNDER THE ROOF OF KY NAM, dir. Leon Le, Vietnam 2025, 140'

Tickets: 27 (normal), 25 (reduced), 22 (with Kinomana Card)

Venue: Sala Wielka

For whom: youth, adults