Mesdames Thanh Sắc

Name: Mesdames Thanh Sắc
Start: 2026-08-09T18:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-08-09T21:04:00+00:00
Location: Humboldt Forum

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	10 EUR / reduced 5 EUR
	Thắng Vũ / Vietnam 2026 / 124 min. / Drama / Vietnamese with English subtitles / FSK 16
	Ground Floor, Schlüter Courtyard
	Belongs to: Box Office Around The World

This event has already taken place.

10 EUR / reduced 5 EUR
,

Based on a true story, the film tells of a drama of jealousy set against the backdrop of Saigon’s nightlife in the 1960s. At the center of the story are two prominent women from high society: Madame Sắc, the wealthy owner of a fabulous diamond collection—and a legendary nightclub. Her Kim Do nightclub sparkles and sizzles in every corner, and it’s not just the ladies’ stunning wardrobes that evoke Paris. The luxurious club is a gathering place for Saigon’s underworld, who indulge themselves here every night and, in the cover of darkness, ensure that everything continues as before… In this milieu, the beautiful Cam Thanh rises in the audience’s favor to become the city’s most famous dancer. But Madame Sac is as strict as she is jealous and power-hungry. When Cam Thanh tries to free herself from her dependence on Madame Sac, the two women clash, and their power struggle drags both into a dramatic downward spiral.

The set design alone makes this film a sensational standout in Vietnamese cinema—but the elegant reconstruction of Saigon’s nightlife in those years is also worth seeing for its allusions to the present.

Programme

8 pm
Talk with Đức Ngô Ngọc (Film Director), Hồng Quang Trương (Co-Curator/Germanist und Literary Translator) und Dorothee Wenner (Host)

in German

9 pm
Film

Participants

The Vietnamese-German director & writer Đức Ngô Ngọc was born in Hanoi and later moved to Berlin as the son of GDR contract workers.

In award-winning films such as “Fruit & Vegetables,” “Farewell Halong” and “Trading Happiness,” he processes his personal experiences of migration and presents his perspective on the issue. “Trading Happiness” was nominated for the FIRST STEPS Award in 2020 in three categories and won the Audience Award at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival in Saarbrücken in the same year.

Ngo Ngoc completed his bachelor’s degree in media design/media art at the Bauhaus University Weimar. As part of his master’s degree in film directing at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, he studied for a semester at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema.

Triggered by the lack of diversity in the film business, Ngo Ngoc founded the documentary-based workshop “Dreh’s Um” for Vietnamese-German youth. For his intercultural media work he was awarded with the Dieter Baacke Prize 2022.

His passion for documentary film also influences his approach on fictional sets. He enjoys working with amateur actors and loves to play with hybrid formats, especially when developing scripts and rehearsing with actors. Ngô Ngọc is particularly interested in merging comedic elements with tragic tones to reach large audiences. In addition to cinema, he therefore worked on Grimme Award nominated series such as “Wir” and “Echt ” in 2021 and 2022.

Recently, he wrote and directed an episode of the six-part drama series “Made in Germany,” which tells the stories of a group of friends who grew up in Berlin in the second generation. Together, they face challenges in establishing their roles in society, chasing individual aspirations, contemplating their identities, and confronting life’s profound questions.

Duc received the German Screenplay Award in 2025 for his screenplay “Ha-Neu/Berlin“.

Đức Ngô Ngọc

Dr. phil. Trương Hồng Quang was born in 1959 in Nghe An, Vietnam. He studied German language and literature and earned his doctorate in comparative literature at Karl Marx University in Leipzig with a dissertation titled “Goethes ‚Faust‘ und Nguyen Dus ‚Das Mädchen Kieu‘ – ein Vergleich”. He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Literature in Hanoi, as an interpreter at the Youth College on Lake Bogensee as well as in Hartenstein and Leipzig, and as a research assistant at SÖSTRA – Sozialökonomische Strukturanalysen e. V. Since then, he has been working as a freelance interpreter and translator.

Literary translations from German into Vietnamese, including: Isabelle Müller: „Loan – Aus dem Leben eines Phönix“, Biografie, Verlag Trẻ, Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt 2018; Thomas Köck: „atlas“, Drama, Suhrkamp Theater Verlag, Berlin 2019, im Auftrag des Schauspiels Leipzig; Georg Büchner: „Woyzeck“, Drama, im Auftrag des Goethe-Instituts Hanoi 2022; Thomas Köck: „The Gem“, Drama, im Auftrag des Goethe-Instituts Hanoi, uraufgeführt am Youth Theatre Hanoi im September 2025.

In 2020, he founded the German-Vietnamese podcast “Leben mit Corona” (Vietnamese: “Sống chung với Corona”). A multi-part series of conversations from the podcast was published under the title “Zeit ist nicht nach einer Armbanduhr zu messen – Ein Rückblick nach 95 Lebensjahren. Gespräch mit Heinz Blumenthal” (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2025). Since 2023, he has served as co-curator of the “Box Office Around the World” film festival at the Humboldt Forum and is responsible for the Vietnamese films.

Trương Hồng Quang