When they discover that they are pregnant, a young couple in Hanoi resort to desperate (and bizarre) measures to raise money for an abortion.

Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere) tells the story of Huyen (played by Nguyen Thuy Anh), a girl who needs money for an abortion after her boyfriend deserts her. She then turns to a transsexual close friend for help and begins to find happiness with a man (by Tran Bao Son) who has a special passion for pregnant women.

A film by Diep Hoang NGUYEN

Country: Vietnam/France/Norway/Germany
Orig. Work Title: Dap canh giua khong trung
Year: 2014
Language: Vietnamese
Runtime: 99 minutes
Rating: 18A

Executive Producer: Diep Hoang Nguyen
Producers: Diep Hoang Nguyen, (Vietnam)
Coproducers: Thierry Lenouvel (France), Alan Milligan (Norway), David Lindner (Germany).

Production Companies: VBlock Media, Ciné-Sud Promotion, Film Farms, Filmallee

Principal Cast: Thuy Anh Nguyen, Bao Son Tran, Ha Hoang, Thanh Duy Pham Tran

NOTE OF THE PROGRAMMER
Huyen and Tung are both barely adults. She is a college student; he works for the city. They live in Hanoi, far from their families, and never have more than enough money to scrape by. The couple is generally careless, and Tung always wants to have sex, so it is perhaps no great surprise when Huyen discovers that she is pregnant. Huyen doesn't want to keep the baby - at least, she's fairly sure she doesn't want to keep it - and Tung goes along with whatever she says. But how will they pay for the abortion?

Vietnamese director Nguyen Hoang Diep's feature debut Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere is a frank yet tender examination of what happens when youthful ambivalence is confronted with life-altering decisions. Tung's strategy for gathering cash for the abortion is to join in the illegal cockfights held outside the city in deserted locales. Huyen's method of fundraising is equally precarious: she accepts her sex-worker friend's offer to hook her up with a client who has a fetish for pregnant women. But this moneymaking technique will take her into surprising and bizarre psychological territory.

From the very first shot, Nguyen establishes herself as a filmmaker with an elegant and unusual vision, filling her film with eye-catching images that function simultaneously as metaphors and as crafty storytelling devices.

A bold story of dizzying romantic negotiations and hard-won self-realization, Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere is a distinct addition to the canon of contemporary Southeast Asian cinema, one that takes an unabashedly female perspective and isn't afraid to linger in life's more difficult moments.
GIOVANNA FULVI (TIFF 2014 - Toronto International Film Festival).
www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/discovery/flapping-in-the-middle-of-nowhere

Director: Diep Hoang Nguyen
Screenplay: Diep Hoang Nguyen
Cinematographer: Quang Minh Pham
Editor: Gustavo Vasco, Jacques Comets
Sound: Thu Thuy Hoang, Nicolas D'halluin, Jean-Guy Véran
Music: Pierre Aviat
Production Designer: NSND Vinh Quang Pham, Nam Dam Nguyen

International Sales Agent: Premium Films

related: Female Director, First Feature, Drama, Women, Vietnamese