Hearing

On silence, noise and the things we (do not) tell each other.

Ninh’s job is installing decibel meters, sensors that register sound levels, and setting off a warning when they are too high.

At home, days are filled with yearning. He lives with his mother, who is separated from and no longer talks to his father. Wishing that the two of them can reconcile, he himself has a difficult relationship with his ex-wife Ngoc, mother of the two young children he adores.

As Ninh installs the meters in noisy bars and private homes, he bears witness to how silence swallows people and relationships alike. How can he prevent the same thing from happening to him?

Having already made the debut feature Taste and the short film Scent, Lê Bảo is a director who cares for the sensing human. Here, sound and communication take center stage. With its carefully crafted tableaux and traces of mystery, Hearing is a film that is both beautiful and wistful in its portrayal of things left unsaid.