Hearing

A film about silence, noise and what we (don’t) say to one another.

Ninh’s job is to install decibel meters: sensors that register sound levels and issue a warning when they get too high.

His everyday life is marked by longing. He lives with his mother, who is separated from his father and no longer speaks to him. As he hopes the two of them will get back together, he also has a difficult relationship with his ex-wife Ngoc, the mother of the two young children he loves so dearly.

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

After his debut feature Taste and the short film Scent, Lê Bảo has established himself as a director with a clear interest in the human being as a sensing creature. Here, sound and communication take centre stage. With its carefully composed tableaux and hints of mystery, Hearing is a film that is both beautiful and wistful in its portrayal of what remains unsaid.