Tình & Tá (Dao Đỏ)
2021 8m 4K 2.35
Inheritance Shorts #1
In the first of new parallel series of short films from Heritage Centre Sapa in association with Open Cinematic, we meet Lý Văn Tình and his wife Lý Thị Tá in a small floating village on Na Hang Lake. Along with more than 4,000 other families, Tình and Tá lost their home and land during the flooding of the Gam River Valley for the construction of the Na Hang Dam.
Having farmed rice for generations, each affected family was left with little choice but to adapt and forge out a new existence. With all viable farmland and their entire village inundated, the decision to live on the newly formed lake created many challenges.
Their new home is made to traditional Dao design with bamboo walls and a thatched palm roof. Less traditional is that the whole construction floats on repurposed oil barrels, while power comes from a small hydroelectric generator driven by a nearby stream. With no phone reception, no TV and the rest of their family having relocated far away, their life feels very detached from modern society.
Describing the shift from rice farming to fishing brought out tangible melancholy from Tình as he recalled childhood memories of a thriving village now lost beneath the lake.
Each day, Tình and his wife wake up at 5am and head out to raise their catch. It’s a hard life and most days the couple can bring home anywhere between $3.50-5.50 USD after selling to passing tradesmen. The traders only buy live shrimp. Any shrimp that die before being sold are used as fish food in two floating ponds.
Tình spends his afternoons tending to herbs grown in pots on his floating garden. He often checks on his herd of goats that roam the steep craggy forest slopes on the adjacent land.
