ON A CONCRETE ROOFTOP overlooking Saigon and overflowing with green plant life, Dahn and Ngoc discuss love. Dahn recalls a whirlwind love affair, “We first met in Da Lat, at 7 AM,” she says. “It was the first time I met a man without telling him I’m transgender.”
The motorbikes below flow through the streets, like blood through the city’s arteries. The scene unfolds with the dramatic impetus of fiction: The dialogue is intimate and flowing, as the editing implies the encroaching oppression of an increasingly conservative society. It sums up, in its loving gaze and careful construction, the heart of Khoa Lê’s Mother Saigon.
With , Lê follows an intimate collective of people who both challenge and reinforce traditional concepts of family and love within the LGBTQ
