Nguyễn Khánh Dư

Director · Writer

Cao Bằng, French Indochina [now Vietnam]

September 2, 1933

Biography

Nguyễn Khánh Dư (September 2, 1933 – December 3, 2007) was a Vietnamese director and cinematographer. A war photographer for an information bureau during the 1st Indochina War, he began working as a documentary cinematographer in 1955. In 1959, he joined Vietnam Feature Film Studio and had his first feature film credit in Phạm Văn Khoa’s “Vườn cam”[Orange Garden] (1960). Despite lacking in professional training, Khánh Dư was widely regarded as one of the most influential cinematographers in early Vietnamese cinema. He worked on films such as "Chị Tư Hậu" [Mrs. Tu Hau] (1962) and "Biển lửa" [Sea of Fire] (1965) by Phạm Kỳ Nam, and won Best Cinematography at the 4th Vietnam Film Festival for his work in the feature film "Hai người mẹ" [Two Mothers] (1975) as well as the documentary "Thành phố lúc rạng đông" [The City at Sunrise] (1975). He began directing in 1976. His best known film is perhaps "Mẹ vắng nhà" [While Mother is Away] (1980), and many of his films focus on children as their subject.