Ròm

Synopsis
Everyone in an old apartment complex that’s been waiting for demolition work for 10 years is in deep debt. The residents gamble in the hope that they can gain enough money to keep their apartment and achieve their small dreams. 14-year-old Ròm works as bookie lottery runner to earn a living. He lives an unsettling life due to his separation from his parents and always yearns to earn enough money to find them. Ròm’s rival is Phúc, due to his streak of picking the winning numbers, the people in the apartment complex trust him over Ròm. However, Phúc had been tricking the residents for a long time. Seeing that this isn’t right, Ròm changes this by helping the people pick a good number. Ròm’s number wins and Phúc loses all of his customers to Ròm. Believing in Ròm’s good luck, the tenants want to bet big to settle all of their debts. But Phúc kidnaps Ròm and takes all of the bets to turn in, and once Ròm finally appears, the creditors are demanding if their debts are not paid off, they will take their apartments. Betting everything they have, it is now up to Ròm to save the tenants again. Can Ròm save them again?

Director’s biography:
Director TRAN THANH HUY is part a promising wave of young directors in the Vietnam film industry in the last 7 years. Since 2005 Tran Thanh Huy has started making many short films which have received much acclaim in Vietnam. His short film 16:30 (2012) won numerous awards, including the Best Short Film Award at the Golden Kite Awards – Vietnam’s equivalent of the Oscars. He eventually developed 16:30 into his feature length debut Ròm (2019). During it’s development, it was awarded the Producer Choices’ Award at the 2014 Autumn Meeting and then it was awarded the Outstanding Project Award at the Hanoi Spring Indie film producer Class 2015 which was sponsored by American Film Association (MPA). It was also selected for Asia Project Market in 2015. Ròm eventually world premiered at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival where it shared the New Currents Prize.