Tending to still-open wounds left by the Vietnam War, Minh Quý Trương’s transfixing and redolent film excavates spectral histories, once buried under the sands of time. Lighting up the darkest pits of the earth, coruscating touches between furtive lovers burn with the fieriness of queer passions.

Through hypnotic bodily gestures and earthy rituals of food preparation, Lê Bảo’s extraordinary debut lends an otherworldly sensuality to the slums of Ho Chi Minh City. Set against the grey solitude of urban precarity is a meeting of lost souls whose wordless tenderness transcends language barriers.