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The Beautiful Country

United States, Norway

2004

137 Min
Color
2.35:1
Cantonese, English, Malay, Mandarin, Vietnamese
  • Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
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DIR Hans Petter Moland

EXEC Sam Nazarian, Jan Økern, Gregory G. Woertz

PROD Tomas Backström, Petter J. Borgli, Terrence Malick

SCR Sabina Murray, Lingard Jervey

DP Stuart Dryburgh

CAST Damien Nguyen, Bai Ling, Thi Hoa Mai, Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, Chapman To, Temeura Morrison

ED Wibecke Rønseth

PROD DES Karl Júlíusson

MUSIC Zbigniew Preisner

SOUND Per Christian Grimsgaard, Espen Rønning, Richard Sveen

Berlinale (Competition), Karlovy Vary

Synopsis

“Bui Doi” (less than dust) is the so called minority of Vietnamese children with American fathers. Binh is a “bui doi”, living a sad and lonely existence in the countryside with his family. He’s a shy and quiet young man, carrying a complex about his appearance. The only memory about his father is a photograph from his childhood. One day, Binh decides to leave the countryside and look for his mother, who works in Saigon as a maid in a residence. There, Binh will testify his mother’s hard existence and discovers that he has a little half brother. A fatal accident will be the beginning of a life full of complications for Binh. He will have to run away with his little brother in a long trip overseas, ending up in a prison for illegal immigrants in Singapur, where he meets a beautiful Chinese girl, Ling, who has to prostitute herself in order to gain some special favors from the guardians. Later, Binh will find himself again overseas, heading to North America, in a boat captained by a kind smuggler (Tim Roth), dedicated to the traffic of illegal immigrants. However, in America, Binh and Ling will have to face a rough reality, illegal immigrant’s reality at China Town, in San Francisco, before he finally arrives Houston, Texas, where he believes is living his father. —IMDb

Director

Original

Hans Petter Moland

Hans Petter Moland (born 1955, Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian film director. Hans Petter was the first born son of Odd Moland and Sigrid Eid Moland, and has a younger brother named Morten Moland. He is a film graduate from Emerson College in the United States. When living in Boston Hans Petter met a college student Elizabeth (Lisa) Pacini whom he married, and later moved back to Norway with. When living in Norway he had three children; Nicolai (1985), Anna Marina (1987) and Max Emil (1989). In 1992 Hans Petter and Elizabeth got divorced. He later married Norwegian film artist Maria Sødahl and had three more children; Sara (1995), Lukas (1998) and Jack (2001). Hans Petter has been awarded prizes for his commercials at all major festivals, including Cannes, before he made his feature debut in 1993 with The Last Lieutenant. He followed up with Zero Kelvin (1995), Aberdeen (2000) and The Beautiful Country (2004), which was selected for Competition in Berlin. He also directed the short film… read more

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orangutangle

9Dec11

The other side of Vietnam. Gruelling, but not unrewarding, with a pleasing ending.

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