On September 16, the movie "The sound of the ocean" will premiere at the National Film Center (Hanoi). This is a project ordered by the State through the Department of Cinema (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Feature Film Joint Stock Company I, produced by directors Dao Duy Phuc and Nguyen Manh Ha.
Inspired by stories in Con Dao in the period of 1945-1954, the film takes viewers to hell on earth, where political prisoners have to face brutal torture but still fuel the revolutionary fire.
The central character is Tam (Nguyen Thuy Duong), a girl playing the monochord, assigned to transform into cloud nurse to support her comrades, including Duy (Nguyen Quang Thuan), a soldier who secretly participated in the plan to build a boat to cross the sea according to the organization's instructions. They, the ordinary people, had to face the most brutal tortures but did not submit.
On social media, a scene of the film recording images of thin prisoners in dark detention centers quickly spread on social media, attracting millions of views in just one day.
Sharing with Lao Dong reporter, film designer Tran Khanh Du revealed that the film was produced from around November 2024 to January 2025, and most of the scenes were filmed in Con Dao to match the film's content.
The artist shared: The film takes the main setting from the miraculous escapation of political prisoners in Con Dao. Therefore, to recreate the most realistic, the film crew decided to film most of the foreign scenes in Con Dao, even though they knew they would face many difficulties in the production stage.
The crew started filming in December, right in the breeze season - a time when the wind outside Con Dao was so strong that there were days when filming equipment was blown away.
Transporting materials also faces many obstacles because there is only one sea route, and for many days the ship cannot go to the island. Specialized materials needed for the backdrop design must be transported from the mainland to the island, making the preparation process much longer and more complicated.
The artist said that the set design alone took 3 months to complete, while the filming time lasted about 45 days, at the end of last year, the whole group had to celebrate New Year's Day right on the island.
One of the biggest challenges is the recreation of the prison detention area. "If it were filmed in real prison, the iron cages would have leaked over time. Therefore, the crew had to rebuild the set with props made from safer materials. For example, cotton is made from soft rubber to ensure that actors can comfortably act without danger.
The walls and partitions are also flexibly assembled, making it easy for the camera to record special angles, increasing cinematic efficiency, the artist shared.
According to artist Khanh Du, the biggest wish of the artist group as well as the whole crew is to bring the audience a film with high artistic quality. This is both a challenge and a motivation for the whole group to make every effort, making The Voice over the Ocean a realistic and touching work.
The Voice Over the Ocean has the participation of a cast including Peoples Artist Bui Bai Binh, actor Vinh Xuong, young actors Thuy Duong, Quang Thuan, and a number of foreign actors such as Maurise Nash, Martin Kruger, Charlie Win.
