A servant girl named Mui quietly notices the world around her in 1950s Saigon - raindrops on a leaf, the sound of insects - in The Scent of Green Papaya, a film built almost entirely out of small things. Sent at age ten to work for a merchant family, Mui grows up within their household, and the film follows her into young adulthood, when she moves to serve a pianist she has secretly admired since childhood. Shot entirely on a soundstage outside Paris - director Tran Anh Hung left Vietnam as a child and hadn't been back in over a decade - the film became the first Vietnamese production ever nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, and won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for best debut. It's a quiet film by design, closer to watching a piece of music than following a plot. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said it's so placid and filled with sweetness that watching it is like listening to soothing music, while Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it luxuriant and visually seductive. Asia Cine-Club: The Scent of Green Papaya (1993, Vietnam) Tuesday, September 15 | Doors: 6PM | Film: 8PM | TicTic, Phnom Penh Free Entry & Popcorn - Arrive early for sofa, bed, or beanbag seating.
