“Nuoc”, internationally known as “2030”, by expat Vietnamese director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh, is chosen to open the Panorama category tonight at the 64th International Film Festival Berlin, which runs until Feb 16.

According to the Vietnam Embassy in Berlin, ambassador Nguyen Thi Hoang Anh, officials, the film’s director and some crew members will join the screening of the film, which is attended by filmmakers and producers from nearly 50 countries and territories. 

The 98-minute film, which is a brilliant fuse of different genres (apocalyptic film, sci-fi, thriller and  romance), has its setting in year 2030, when most of the cultivable land in southern Vietnam is below sea level due to extreme climatic changes.

Though most people have already been evacuated, Sao and her husband Thi refuse to leave their land. They are living in a stilt house and subsisting on the shrinking fish population.

When her husband is murdered, Sao gets a job at one of the floating farms, where major multinational corporations are working on a secret project to produce vegetables, now a rare commodity. Suspecting that she may find his murderers there, Sao later discovers that the untested processes of genetic engineering in vegetable production pose a detrimental health risk.

“Nuoc”, which is the film adaptation from a popular short story by local writer Nguyen Ngoc Tu, is selected in the Panorama category along with 36 other films from other countries and territories. The category honors works with unique aesthetic perspectives.

After the opening screening at CinemaxX7 at 9pm tonight, “Nuoc”, whose director had also pocketed several international awards with his film “Mua len trau” (Buffalo boy), will be screened in five other sessions from Feb 7 to 14.

This year’s International Film Festival Berlin will be opened by director Wes Anderson’s film, “The grand Budapest hotel”.

In 2012, a Vietnamese film about two gay young men titled “Hot boy noi loan hay cau chuyen ve thang Cuoi, co gai diem va con vit” by local director Vu Ngoc Dang also made it into the festival’s Panorama category.