A personal meditation in dialogue with a story by Nguyễn Thúy Hằng.

 

Created as part of a conversation with the short story To Ask: Can Love, Adrift from the World? by artist and writer Nguyễn Thúy Hằng, Three Acts is a deeply personal work born from reflection on my relationship with my mother.

 

Commissioned by Bar de Force Press with support from the Goethe-Institut Ho Chi Minh City, the piece unfolds across three movements—each echoing the language of cinema, and the emotional rhythms of estrangement and reconciliation.

 

Act I contemplates language itself. Words like Mother’s, Child, Mother appear on-screen, inviting reflection on the meanings we inherit and the roles we’re given.

 

Act II touches the ache of distance: the detachment, the abandonment, the quiet grief that lingers between generations.

 

Act III offers a gesture of forgiveness. My mother sings in the film—off-key, unapologetically. I used to tease her for having the worst singing voice in the world. But here, I let her voice stay. Off-tune, broken. With joy.

 

Three Acts is not a reconciliation, but an opening—a space to listen, to remember, and to hold the contradictions of love.

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