Ash Mayfair

THE THIRD WIFE

Vietnam, 2018, 94′

Entrapped in a cocoon of traditions, newly-wed May must realize that flying free will become at a high price. In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung. Soon she learns that she can only gain status by asserting herself as a woman who can give birth to a male child. May’s hope to change her status turns into a real and tantalizing possibility when she gets pregnant. Faced with forbidden love and its devastating consequences, May finally comes to an understanding of the brutal truth: the options available to her are few and far between.

Ash Mayfair
Born in Vietnam and educated in the UK and the US. She received a BA from Oxford University for English Literature, a post-grad degree from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for theatre directing and graduated with an MFA in film-making at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Ash has directed numerous plays and short films in the UK and the US. She has worked at the National Theatre in London as an assistant director and in off-Broadway productions in New York as a director. Her short films, The Silver Man, Sam, Heart of a Doll, Grasshopper, Lupo, Walking the Dead and No Exit have travelled to multiple international festivals. Grasshopper won the Audience Award at the Un Pays Un Film Festival in 2012.