| Summary: | Adapted from a short story of the same title by renowned writer Nguyen Huy Thiep, Tâm Hồn Mẹ (Mother's Soul) follows a mother-daughter relationship on the edges of modern-day Hanoi. When a single mom, played by Hong Anh (The Moon at the Bottom of the Well), falls in love with a handsome truck driver, her tight-knit teamwork with her daughter falters, and with it their fragile livelihood. As the mother becomes deeply involved with her lover, the young girl struggles to take care of herself and to recall her mother to her duties. The girl is by turns a 10-year-old running around the corn field with an orphaned friend, and role-playing as a mother herself. Director Pham Nhue Giang (Deserted Valley) brings a welcome focus on the complexity of the relationships between her female characters. The young actress Phung Hoa Hoai Linh delivers an impressive performance as the daughter, both angry and yearning for her mother's love. Phung received the Best Actress Award in the Africa-Asia films category at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2011, for this role. The film's cinematography of the fields, the Red River, and rainy Hanoi lends added beauty to the story.
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