Synopsis

A woman tries to cling onto dimming links to her past after inheriting a pygmy slow loris from her long-estranged husband; meanwhile, her niece prepares for marriage as the young couple ponders their uncertain future together. The present and the complex echoes of Vietnamese history intertwine with a contemplative and poetic perspective.

Curators’ note

Director’s bio

Phạm Ngọc Lân was born and raised in Hanoi. He rarely left his city (both in reality and in his imagination) until college. Lân graduated with a degree in urban planning and self-taught filmmaking at 27. His short films included The Story of Ones (Visions du Réel 2012), Another City (Berlinale 66th); Blessed Land (Berlinale 69th) and The Unseen River (Locarno 74th, Sundance 2021). Cu Li Never Cries is his first feature-length film.

Director‘s statement

The title of the film Cu Li Never Cries is an existen-tialist metaphor for the perseverance of the main protagonist against the changes of the times. Her character is one whose past has been weighed down by the burdens of history and time. The context of the film is similar to the story of my dad’s older sister: Mrs. Nguyện was part of the labor, students, and specialists sent to East Germany prior so, to me, Cu Li Never Cries is a query full of doubt about the happiness that Mrs. Nguyện, and we, never stop searching for...to 1990; making her a Cu Li during that period. Just as the river current can be understood as the flow of time, Mrs. Nguyện’s journey upstream to scatter ashes at the old hydro plant the second time signifies her own journey to the past, tracing back to the original event in her memory that obstructed and redirected the current of her youth. From the perspective of someone who comes a generation after like me, stories of individuals like Mrs. Nguyện, my aunt, uncle, and parents are the all ones cloaked in the fog of time and woven in between the complications of personal memories, historical contexts, and political regimes. It’s the kind of story that we can read about or have it told to us, but not something we can ever fully understand. And so, to me, Cu Li Never Cries is a query full of doubt about the happiness that Mrs. Nguyện, and we, never stop searching for...

Festival & Awards

74th Berlinale Panorama, Berlin, Germany (world premiere) – GWFF Best First Feature Award

International Competition, Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea (Asian premiere) – Best Picture Award

Casts

Minh Chau

Credits

Scriptwriter: Pham Ngoc Lan

Cinematographer: Linh Dan Nguyen, Phan, Nguyen Vinh Phuc,Vu Hoang Trieu

Composer: Trần Kim Ngọc

Production designer: Nghiem Quynh Trang

Editor: Julie Béziau​