Actors Nguyen Thuy Anh and Tran Bao Son in Flapping in The Middle of Nowhere. — Photo courtesy of movie crew

HA NOI (VNS) — An independent film Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung (Flapping in The Middle of Nowhere) will be screened at the 71st Venice Film International Festival from August 27 to September 6.

Directed and produced by Nguyen Hoang Diep, the film is among eight others to vie for the Lion of The Future award at the festival's International Critics' Week.

The other countries are France, Italy and China, along with Germany, Palestine, Serbia and Iran.

The Lion of The Future Venice Award is presented to a feature-length film making its debut in any one of the competitive sections of the festival (Official Selection and Independent and Parallel Sections).

It will include a cash prize of US$100,000, offered by Filmauro di Aurelio e Luigi de Laurentiis, to be divided equally between the director and the producer.

Flapping in The Middle of Nowhere tells the story of a young woman who is desperately trying to find money for an abortion.

Eventually, a man offers help, but she is reluctant to take his money because he is in love with her.

"I chose this title because I wanted to express the confusion people feel when they are not able to fly high but do not feel safe enough to land. That's why they keep flapping around in the middle of nowhere," Diep said.

"Sexual obsession and bodily desires from the purest moments of love and moments of the most innocent emotions, stay with us the longest," she added.

This is the first motion picture by Diep made with a total budget of 410,000 Euros (US$ 551,000).

It received financial support from Berlin International Film Festival's World Cinema Fund, Granting Programme of Global Film Initiative and Pre-filming subsidy of the French World Cinema.

Diep graduated from the Ha Noi-based Stage and Cinema College. She worked for television where she became an important producer on the Vietnamnet TV channel.

She produced the short documentary series Cuoc Song Thay Doi (Changing Lives), as well as the two television shows Chit and Pi and Bo Tu 10A8 (The 10A8 Quartet), which have become a hit with young audiences.

Her short film Hai, Tu, Sau (Two, Four and Six) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner in 2012.

She recently set up VBLOCK Media which forged its own path to become an independent film production company focusing on art and experimental films.

In 2009, VBLOCK produced the film Bi, Dung So! (Bi, Don't Be Afraid!), which was screened at around forty film festivals in thirty countries, and garnered a record number of prizes for Viet Nam.

Two other Vietnamese films Khi Toi 20 (When I'm 20) by Phan Dang Di and Choi Voi (Adrift) by Bui Thac Chuyen were screened at the Venice Film Festival's Short Film section in 2008 and Orizzonti in 2009. — VNS