SKIN OF YOUTH

a film by Ash Mayfair

2025, 122 minutes, Vietnam/Singapore/Japan, 2.35, Color, 5.1 Sound, in Vietnamese with English subtitles

Sales/Festivals: Diversion

Synopsis:

SKIN OF YOUTH focuses on the turbulent romance between a transgender sex worker seeking to realise her dream of living in a woman’s body, and a cage fighter in 1990s Saigon. San wants to have enough money for a sex-change operation that will fulfil her dream of living in a woman’s body. San’s lover, Nam, must work as an underground dogcage fighter to support this dream. The young lovers are unaware that the dark forces they will have to battle may cost them their relationship and test the limit of their humanity.

Director's Statement

When he was two-year-old, my brother told me he was transgender. His exact words were: “Sister, I’m not a girl. I’m a boy!”

From the moment we had this conversation, I remember typing the word “transgender” into a search bar for the first time. SKIN OF YOUTH (On Ao Tuoi Tre) is a story fifteen years in the making. My brother is 17 now. In the process of trying to understand my brother, I have learned a tremendous amount from the LGBTQ community. The young transpeople I have met in Vietnam ever since have inspired and impressed me endlessly with their resilience and their light. This film is my attempt to share a small part of their journey.

About the Director:

Ash Mayfair is an award-winning writer-director based in Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh city.

After receiving an MFA in filmmaking at NYU, Ash wrote, directed and co-produced her first feature, THE THIRD WIFE. The screen play was a recipient of the Spike Lee Film Production Award 2016. The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2018 and won the NETPAC Jury Award. THE THIRD WIFE has garnered more than 20 awards worldwide, screened at over 70 film festivals and received distribution in 30+ territories. In 2020, THE THIRD WIFE earned three Spirit Award Nominations in the US including the Someone To Watch nomination for Ash. SKIN OF YOUTH is her second feature.

SKIN OF YOUTH is one of 4 winners of the NYU Purple List for the best unproduced screenplays written by graduates and is a semi-finalist of the Academy Nicholls Competition in 2020. Ash is also an alumna of the Sundance Film Two Lab 2020 and a recipient of the Berlinale Nipkow Fellowship 2020.