Director of Buffalo Wool Season: 'My wife sacrificed for me to make films'

Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh said thanks to his wife taking care of the family, he was able to satisfy his passion for making his first film "Buffalo Wool Season", opening up opportunities in cinema.

On April 4, he returned to Vietnam for the first time in 5 years to attend the 2024 Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival, which will open on the evening of April 6. When asked about his life after 20 years of pursuing cinema, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh said: " The buffalo wool season helped many audiences know me, making me more serious about my career. But without my wife's sacrifice, I would not have today."

His film Buffalo Wool Season (2004) won the highest award for feature films - Grand Prix du Long Métrage of the 2004 Amiens Film Festival (France), the special prize of the Amazonas International Film Festival (Brazil), the Young Jury prize of the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland), and helped Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh win the award for best new director of the Chicago International Film Festival (USA).

He and his wife - Mrs. Ngo Thi Huong Anh, four years younger than the director - have been together for nearly 40 years and have two children, a boy and a girl. Before getting into cinema, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh worked in physics and taught at a community college in California (USA), while his wife was a doctor. They both have stable jobs and enough income to live on.

Around 2001, his father fell ill with old age, and the director's first son was four years old. At that time, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh said his emotions became mixed, happy to see his son growing up but sad because he was about to lose his father. The incident reminded him of the atmosphere and human condition in the story collection Huong rung Ca Mau by writer Son Nam - a work the director had long loved, from which he began writing the script Mua len trau (The Buffalo Wool Season). The film's plot tells the story of three generations of men in a family in the river region of the West.

When she learned that her husband wanted to make a film, Mrs. Huong Anh worried about the hardships and unforeseen risks, but she still kept it to herself and took care of the family. According to the director, his wife has a private lifestyle, is not interested in films, but always reads scripts or watches edits, and from there gives her husband practical suggestions.

Director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh (left) and his wife on a trip to the US. Photo: Character provided — Director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh (left) and his wife take a walk near their home, in the Sunken City area (Los Angeles, USA). Photo: *Character provided*

Thanks to his wife maintaining a simple and frugal lifestyle, the family's finances were stable during the days he was away filming with his crew. During the six months the artist returned to Vietnam to make his first film, his wife stayed in the US to take care of the children and run the house. After finishing his work in the country, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh returned home for more than a month and then went to Europe for six months to do post-production. When Buffalo Wool Season made its mark at many international film events, the director was busier because he had to travel to many places to introduce his work.

The director said that although his wife did not say it, he still wanted to spend time with his family, making up for the time he was away from home, so after his first film, he rarely released new works. If he had no work plans, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh and his wife and children would go on vacation, cook, and chat together.

In addition to his love for his family, throughout his 20 years in the profession, the artist has always respected his homeland Vietnam, using cinema as a means to express his homesickness. "The older I get, the more my memories of my childhood in my hometown come alive, providing me with many creative materials," he said.

Currently, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh is nurturing the film project Picturehouse (Vietnamese name is Chop bong ), inspired by the director's childhood. The content is set in the 1960s-1970s, revolving around a boy named Quang, who finds his love of cinema inside the cinema built by his grandfather.

Director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh in Ho Chi Minh City on April 5. Photo: Que Chi — Director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh in Ho Chi Minh City on April 5. At the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival held from April 6-13, he was a judge in the Southeast Asian Film category. Photo: *Que Chi*

At the age of over 60, Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh has no pressure to compete for awards, but just wants to be free to work. "I think each filmmaker has a different way of expressing his or her perspective, but the value of the work - even if it is fictional - still lies in its honesty and emotional depth," the director said.

Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh was born in Vung Tau. In 1974, he left his homeland, studied in France and then lived in California (USA). After his first film , Buffalo Wool Season , he continued his artistic path with When You Love, Don't Turn Back (2010) and Water 2030 (2014). Of these, Water 2030 was chosen to open the Panorama program at the 64th Berlin Film Festival (Germany).

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