Letters from Panduranga was made in response to the Vietnamese government’s plan to build its first nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuận, in a province historically known as Panduranga, and the spiritual center of the Cham culture. Nguyễn Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based filmmaker and artist whose work blends documentary and performance to explore memory, landscape, and hidden histories. This essay film unfolds through the blending of a fictional letter exchange between a man and a woman with documentary footage, to address the erasure of the Cham culture, alongside state censorship about ongoing ecological destruction.

As an essay film, it challenges conventional storytelling by weaving personal reflection, historical inquiry, and poetic narration, encouraging viewers to engage critically with the layered tensions between lost history, memory, and power. Following the essay film form, Nguyễn problemizes her authority, using two voices – the unnamed man and woman in the letters – to distance her proximity between herself and the Cham people. These voices express hesitation and uncertainty about their position, inviting critical reflection on memory and history. The film weaves together the history of the Cham people with broader narratives of colonialism, war, and contemporary politics, and the challenges of representing the subject.

Letters from Panduranga part of a larger block on Nguyễn’s work on the erasure of minority cultures in Vietnam.