Thi Kieu Trinh Nguyen

Set along the southern coast of Vietnam during the French occupation in the 1940s, water is everywhere, giving life and bringing decay and rot. Kim is 15; his father and step-mother have two buffalo, their lifeline as subsistence rice farmers. During the rainy season, there's no grass and the buffalo are starving. Kim volunteers to take the beasts inland to find food. On this coming-of-age journey, Kim sees men mistreat women, men fight with men, and French taxes rob the poor. He works for Lap, a buffalo herder whose past is entangled with Kim's parents, and he makes friends who will lead him to his place in the world.

Saigon, early 2000s. Photography student Vu has just arrived from Vietnam's backwaters and is immediately attracted to his handsome roommate Thang, who works odd jobs as a bouncer and low-level drug dealer. Entranced by the nocturnal rhythms of Thang's world, Vu follows him around the city where he meets Van, a ballet-cum-exotic dancer and Thang's sometimes-girlfriend.

In an old house in Hanoi, Bi, a 6-year-old child lives with his parents, his aunt and their cook. His favorite playgrounds are an ice factory and the wild grass along the river. After being absent for years, his grandfather, seriously ill, reappears and settles at their house. While Bi gets closer to his grandfather, his father tries to avoid any contact with his family. Every night, he gets drunk and goes and see his masseuse, for whom he feels a quiet strong desire. Bi's mother turns a blind eye on it. The aunt, still single, meets a 16-year-old young boy in the bus. Her attraction to him moves her deeply.

Five friends went on a trip to get away from the bustling life of Saigon. What promised to be an unforgettable adventure for these friends turned into a nightmare all of them would want to forget, if they survive.

Gentle is a film set in modern-day South Vietnam and based on the short story 'A Gentle Creature' by the Russian novelist Dostoevsky.

University student Trang's friend suddenly goes missing after she was last seen playing a ritual game in an elevator. She and her cousin investigate the place where the girl vanished, and get obsessively invested with what might be a door to a terrifying dark world. The exploration gets even darker when they commence a thrilling cat-and-mouse game with someone - or something - that's out to get them.

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