”Flower of the Apple Tree”, the first co-produced film between a European country and Vietnam, will be released on 16 February. The film tells the parallel romantic story of two lovers from the 1970s and the present day, but the events of the past might have a major impact today.
Present day – The story revolves around a young Vietnamese girl, who is not willing to accept the future that family traditions bind her to. Since her grandmother is not willing to open up about her mysterious past, she travels to Hungary to find out what really happened. Hoping that solving the family mystery will help her resolve her own uncertainties, she meets a boy on the bank of the Danube – it’s love at first sight.
Meanwhile in the 1970s, a Vietnamese schoolgirl and a young man fall in love at university. Their increasingly serious relationship is witnessed by a supervisor, whose job is to ensure that the Vietnamese scholarship students do not stay in Hungary, but return home as graduates to work for their own country.
Nari Nguyen, the protagonist of the present-day story, has lived in Budapest since birth and was first seen in the Hungarian film “Comrade Drakulich” (2019). The male lead is Balázs Koltai-Nagy, a recent Junior Prima Award winner and actor at the Katona József National Theatre in Kecskemét. The main characters in the 70’s storyline are Dzhuliya Lam, interior designer and model, and András Sütő, known for his role in “Land of Storms” (2014).
Supported by the National Film Institute of Hungary, “The Flower of the Apple Tree” is co-written by directors Dóra Szűcs and Dang Thanh Binh. In addition to the main cast, Jázmin Juhász, Tamás Dunai, Katalin Takács, Dániel Lê Viet Tung, Bold Khan, Annamária Berta Hámi and Péter Kálloy Molnár play important roles.
Source and cover credit: NFI
