KOREA FOUNDATION

The Scent Of Green Papaya 

· Director: Tran Anh Hung / France, Vietnam 

Set in 1950s Vietnam, the film follows Mùi, a young girl who arriving at a wealthy family’s house where she spends her life working as a servant. Midway through the film, the story skips forward a decade. The rich family has fallen on hard times and Mùi changes homes, now working for a pianist whom she later falls in love with. A narrative about female maturation, the film was praised for its sensuous imagery and beautiful music, which, together with the director’s sparse use of dialogue. The film depicts the effects of music and nature on the characters’ mental state and contains a wealth of close-ups of plants and insects, seen through the eyes of the young Mùi. The film won the Caméra d’Or (Golden Camera) award at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the 1994 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film.