Lê Bảo's 'Hearing' Premieres at Locarno, Traces Family Abuse
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- Lê Bảo's second feature "Hearing" premiered in Locarno's main competition, following his 2021 debut "Taste," which won a jury prize in Berlin's former Encounters section
- The film centers on mechanic Ninh (Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn), separated from his wife (Khánh Huyền) after he beat her; she now lives with their two children at her parents' house, and he yearns for reconciliation she won't grant
- Ninh's father (Minh Hùng) perpetrated domestic violence in his own marriage and refuses to make peace, establishing a generational pattern the film traces across the family
- Singapore's E&W Films produced the picture; the company's recent credits include Cannes selections "Viet and Nam" and "9 Temples to Heaven," placing "Hearing" in a slow-cinema lineage
- Vincent Villa's sound design is singled out as the film's technical centerpiece, with DP Nguyễn Vinh Phúc providing "deep-shadowed still-life lighting" across domestic and natural tableaux including basket-weavers, mushroom farmers, and mangrove-forest monkeys
Why it matters: The Locarno main competition berth gives Lê Bảo his biggest international platform yet after Berlin recognition for "Taste," but Variety explicitly flags the film as the kind of "challenging arthouse fare" that may need continued festival exposure to land distributors — making theatrical exhibition of its intricate sound design uncertain.
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