Quán Kỳ Nam [Ky Nam Inn], Leon Le‘s long-awaited second film will have its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival TIFF in the Special Presentation section.

For this second opus shot on 35 mn, Leon Le reunited with Liên Bỉnh Phát, seven years after his critically acclaimed Song Lang. The actor plays a young translator named Khang opposite Đỗ Thị Hải Yến (Vertical ray of the sun, Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories) in the titular role. Both are surrounded by a terrific ensemble cast including Trần Thế Mạnh (Before the sea forgets), Ngô Hồng Ngọc, Hồ Thành Trung (Saigon in the rain), Nguyễn Thu Thắm and Nguyễn Sỹ Hậu.

“After the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam were” reunified under Communist rule, and a single-party socialist regime was imposed. It is in the mid-1980s, in the period of recovery and change that followed this tumultuous time, that Khang (Lien Binh Phat) and Ky Nam (Do Thi Hai Yen) meet.

Khang is a young translator on his way to success thanks to his family connections. Tasked with working on a new translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince’, Khang moves to Saigon, grateful for the opportunity but wanting to shed the perception of nepotism. On the evening he arrives at his new abode, he meets Ky Nam, a widowed older woman from the South who makes a living by cooking. She keeps to herself and seems to have hardened as a form of defence, like her namesake agarwood, kynam, the rare resin produced by Aquilaria trees when they are injured. Although Khang and Ky Nam seem at first to be complete opposites, they soon find themselves emotionally entwined.“

Quan Ky Nam also marks the return of collaboration between Leon Le and screenwriter Nguyễn Thị Minh Ngọc, director of photography Bob Nguyen and composer Tôn Thất An after Song Lang.

For more information about the film at TIFF:
TIFF Ky Nam Inn
(click link to open)