Duc Tien Le

A government minister from Hanoi has a car accident on the way to a wedding in a remote village. The county hospital does not have the authority to operate on a minister. The county commissioner would like the operation done in the county for the prestige it would bring, but will not authorize it without the approval of the whole county committee. The hospital director has filled his quota, so does not want to take the risk of an operation. Since a telephone call to Hanoi has to be booked two days in advance, the minister's wife cannot be contacted, nor can a helicopter be arranged to move the minister to Hanoi.

A young Khmer woman becomes the first in her village to pass the university entrance test. With her husband’s support, she moves to the city and studies film to pursue her lifelong dream of being a director.

When the owner of a coconut-making business suddenly passes away, his young heiress Sáu Mân takes over estate and marries its chief craftsman to oblige her father’s will. Once a young, unburdened schoolgirl, Sáu Mân now carries the fate of the workers and the business in her estate, while still having to shoulder the childrearing duties.

Kim is 15; his father and step-mother have two buffalo, their lifeline as subsistence rice farmers. During the rainy season, there's no grass and the buffalo are starving. Kim volunteers to take the beasts inland to find food. On this coming-of-age journey, Kim sees men mistreat women, men fight with men, and French taxes rob the poor. He works for Lap, a buffalo herder whose past is entangled with Kim's parents, and he makes friends who will lead him to his place in the world.