THE THIRD WIFE

Wednesday 13 November 2019

10.00 am, 2.30 pm, 5.00 pm and 7.15 pm
Directed by Ash Mayfair

Drama

Vietnam (Subtitled)
96 mins

MA15+

In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May’s hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalising possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.  

Gently dipping us into the long ago and far away past, Ash Mayfair’s directorial debut brings an intimate immediacy to the re-creation of rural Vietnam in the late 19th century.-  Jessica Kiang, Variety

It’s certainly a curiosity for connoisseurs of Third World cinema. – David Stratton, The Australian

A powerful reflection on sexual subjugation and the hypocrisy of moral hierarchy, featuring incredibly soft, and strikingly textured cinematography. –  Andrew Bundy, The Playlist