Buffalo Boy (Mùa len trâu in Vietnamese, Le Gardien des Buffles in French) is a 2004 film directed by Minh Nguyen-Vo. The movie was the official entry from Vietnam for Best Foreign Language Film category at the 78th Academy Awards. It was filmed in Ca Mau Province, Vietnam's southernmost province.
Reviews
Bruce Newman (San Jose Mercury News): If you have ever wondered what the life of a Vietnamese peasant was like in the 1940s, it seems unlikely there will be a lovelier evocation of it than Buffalo Boy.
Ken Fox (TV Guide's Movie Guide): This beautiful film offers a rare, poetic glimpse of life in rural Vietnam during the French occupation.
Manohla Dargis (New York Times): Ostensibly a coming-of-age story, this languorous, beautifully shot feature debut from Vietnam tells a deceptively simple tale in a deceptively simple fashion.
The Buffalo Boy Trailer
Summary
Water is a way of life for much of the year in the southern lowlands of Vietnam. When the monsoon season sets in, everything that isn't tied up, nailed down, or raised on stilts is washed away with the tide. Of special concern is the welfare of the livestock, which must be herded to higher pastures so they don't die of starvation during the flood season. Farming families pay teams of hired herders to guide their individual buffaloes or small herds to the highlands in search dry pastures.
For one farmer named Dinh, who is deeply in debt and has taken ill, saving his pair of buffaloes is so crucial to the survival of his family that he sends his only son Kim to take them and join up with foreman Lap's team on their way to Mt. Ba-The. Along the way, Kim learns the ropes, including the tragedy of buffaloes that die along the way, and the perils of rogue gangs who attack in the night. Once the rains subside and the flood waters recede, Kim returns home, but with only one surviving buffalo. By this time however, Dinh has reached the end of the line with his creditors, who are demanding that he sell his buffalo to pay up. With nothing left to carry on, Dinh and his wife head for U Minh to work as land guards, and Kim strikes off on his own to work with his friend Det as independent herders.
Despite the fact that they are competing with Lap's team, Kim and Det manage to gather a small herd for hire, and along the way, they meet up with Kim's old friend Quang, as well as Det's lost love Ban, mother to his young son Thieu. Together, they navigate their way to U Ming, where Kim learns that his father has taken ill, and his mother has left him. And when Kim goes in search of his father, he knows not what sorrows and secrets await.
In a voiceover, Kim says that the Japanese came in to drive out the French, and then were themselves driven out. This political change does not seem to affect rural Vietnam.
Awards
Golden Unicorn - Amiens International Film Festival
Best Cinematography - Asia-Pacific Film Festival (2005)
Silver Hugo New - Chicago International Film Festival (2004)
Youth Jury Award: Environment is Quality of Life - Locarno International Film Festival (2004)
FIPRESCI Prize - Palm Springs International Film Festival (2006)
Buy
Buffalo Boy
at Amazon
Reviews
Bruce Newman (San Jose Mercury News): If you have ever wondered what the life of a Vietnamese peasant was like in the 1940s, it seems unlikely there will be a lovelier evocation of it than Buffalo Boy.
Ken Fox (TV Guide's Movie Guide): This beautiful film offers a rare, poetic glimpse of life in rural Vietnam during the French occupation.
Manohla Dargis (New York Times): Ostensibly a coming-of-age story, this languorous, beautifully shot feature debut from Vietnam tells a deceptively simple tale in a deceptively simple fashion.
The Buffalo Boy Trailer
Water is a way of life for much of the year in the southern lowlands of Vietnam. When the monsoon season sets in, everything that isn't tied up, nailed down, or raised on stilts is washed away with the tide. Of special concern is the welfare of the livestock, which must be herded to higher pastures so they don't die of starvation during the flood season. Farming families pay teams of hired herders to guide their individual buffaloes or small herds to the highlands in search dry pastures.
For one farmer named Dinh, who is deeply in debt and has taken ill, saving his pair of buffaloes is so crucial to the survival of his family that he sends his only son Kim to take them and join up with foreman Lap's team on their way to Mt. Ba-The. Along the way, Kim learns the ropes, including the tragedy of buffaloes that die along the way, and the perils of rogue gangs who attack in the night. Once the rains subside and the flood waters recede, Kim returns home, but with only one surviving buffalo. By this time however, Dinh has reached the end of the line with his creditors, who are demanding that he sell his buffalo to pay up. With nothing left to carry on, Dinh and his wife head for U Minh to work as land guards, and Kim strikes off on his own to work with his friend Det as independent herders.
Despite the fact that they are competing with Lap's team, Kim and Det manage to gather a small herd for hire, and along the way, they meet up with Kim's old friend Quang, as well as Det's lost love Ban, mother to his young son Thieu. Together, they navigate their way to U Ming, where Kim learns that his father has taken ill, and his mother has left him. And when Kim goes in search of his father, he knows not what sorrows and secrets await.
In a voiceover, Kim says that the Japanese came in to drive out the French, and then were themselves driven out. This political change does not seem to affect rural Vietnam.
Awards
Golden Unicorn - Amiens International Film Festival
Best Cinematography - Asia-Pacific Film Festival (2005)
Silver Hugo New - Chicago International Film Festival (2004)
Youth Jury Award: Environment is Quality of Life - Locarno International Film Festival (2004)
FIPRESCI Prize - Palm Springs International Film Festival (2006)
Watching Buffalo Boy
Buy
Buffalo Boy
at Amazon 
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