Overview
Genre: Epic Drama
Language: English
Country of Origin: Norway
Format: 35 mm
Production Status: Completed
Running Time: 126 minutes
Year of Production: 2003
Synopsis
Binh (DAMIEN NGUYEN – debut), a young Vietnamese man, makes an extraordinary six-month journey from his village, 300 miles south of Saigon, all the way to a farm in Texas – in search of his long lost GI father (NICK NOLTE – Hulk, Affliction). As he travels with his young brother, his arduous trip is almost cut short when his refugee boat breaks down. Picked up by the authorities he is then interned into a camp in Malaysia – where an opportunistic escape with another refugee Ling (BAI LING – Taxi 3, Anna and the King, Red Corner) onto a smuggler’s cargo boat, allows his quest to continue. Binh is then confronted by starvation, illness and an insane culture of gambling for food and water on the ocean freighter, skippered by Captain Oh (TIM ROTH – Pulp Fiction, Planet of the Apes). Eventually making it to New York – he discovers that he has effectively become an indentured slave to the restaurant owners he ‘works’ for. But for all this, his dream of finding his father never falters…
THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY is an epic, highly emotional and ultimately uplifting story of one young man’s seemingly impossible search for his lost father.
Cast + Crew
Screenplay: Sabina Murray, Larry Gross
Director: Hans Petter Moland (Aberdeen)
Producer: Edward R. Pressman, Terrence Malick, Tomas Backström, Petter J. Borgli
Executive Producer: Sam Nazarian
Cast: Nick Nolte, Tim Roth, Temuera Morrison, Bai Ling, Damien Nguyen
Score: Zbigniew Preisner (The Double Life of Veronique, Three Colours Trilogy)
Director of Photography: Stuart Dryburgh (The Recruit, The Piano, Bridget Jones’ Diary)
Production Designer: Kalli Juliusson
Distributors
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Festivals
Berlin Film Festival ’04 In Competition; Karlovy Vary Film Festival ’04, Braunschweig Film Festival ’04
Film credits are not contractual
