Cu Li Never Cries

2024 Berlin International Film Festival: GWFF Best First Feature Award

Las Palmas Film Festival: Best Performance Award

Jeonju Film Festival: Best Picture – International Competition

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 ponder their uncertain future together. The present and the complex echoes of Vietnamese history are entwined before a contemplative and poetic perspective.

Director’s biography

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 includedThe Story of Ones (Visions du Réel 2012), Another City (Berlinale 66th); Blessed Land (Berlinale 69th) andThe Unseen River (Locarno 74th, Sundance 2021). Cu Li Never Cries is his first feature-length film.