New York premiere of Summer School, 2001. A tender, funny coming-of-age family story set in the world of the Cheb market, where heat-pressed Pokémon, Czech grammar drills, and first flirtations can’t keep old wounds from resurfacing. Followed by a Q&A with director Dužan Duong, moderated by Tony Bui, filmmaker and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University.
Monday, March 16, 7 PM | screening + Q&A | REGISTER
Summer School, 2001 / dir. Dužan Duong / 2025 / drama / Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 102 min
Summer, 2001. Seventeen-year-old Kien, with his bright red hair, returns to his family in Cheb after spending ten years in Vietnam. But instead of a warm welcome, he finds an estranged father, a worried mother, and a younger brother who isn’t ready to forgive or forget. Between heat-pressing Pokémon onto T-shirts, drilling Czech grammar, and lakeside flirtations, a buried secret surfaces—one that will turn life at the Cheb market upside down…
Told with lightness and humor, director Dužan Duong’s film offers an authentic look into a community through the eyes of the first Vietnamese generation to grow up in the Czech Republic.
Dužan Duong is a director and cinematographer of Vietnamese origin. He made his debut at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival with the short film Mat Goc and gained significant attention with the film Bo Hai (screened at FAMUfest, Finále Plzeň, Prague Shorts, SGIFF, and Cottbus IFF). His work focuses on themes of identity and cultural memory. He also works as a cinematographer in advertising under the brand Novák+Nguyen.
Director: Dužan Duong / Screenplay: Dužan Duong, Jan Smutný, Lukáš Kokeš / Cinematography: Adam Mach / Editing: Jakub Jelínek, Jakub Podmanický / Sound: Petr Kolev, Adam Bláha / Music: Jonatan Pastričák / Dramaturgy: Tomáš Hrubý / Co-Producers: Jakub Viktorin / Producers: Lukáš Kokeš, Dužan Duong / Executive Producer: Mai Thuy Linh / Production Managers: Kristýna Milaberská, Valeria Borkovcová / Makeup: Denisa Bontempo, Veronika Varcholová / Costumes: Veronika Varcholová / Production Designer: Marek František Do Špitálský / Casting: Valeria Borkovcová / Production: nutprodukce (co-production with AZN kru; Slovak branch of nutprodukcia; Czech Television – creative producer Helena Uldrichová; Biofilms; Magiclab)
Cast: Đoàn Hoàng Anh, Tô Tiến Tài, Bùi Thế Dương, Lê Quỳnh Lan, Ngô Xuân Thắng, Nguyễn Dũng, Nguyễn Đức Quân, Vũ Xuân Thành, Tô Xuân Tiêm, Phạm Thị Nhung, and others
