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 are entwined before a contemplative and poetic perspective.
Câu chuyện về một phụ nữ lớn tuổi giữ chặt mối dây liên hệ với quá khứ và hai người trẻ tuổi đứng trước quyết định hôn nhân. Đời sống hiện tại và những dư âm phức tạp của lịch sử Việt Nam đan xen trong góc nhìn trầm mặc, chiêm nghiệm và thơ ca.
From SGIFF: “A poetic examination of the space memories occupy in our existence, through vignettes of two women at different points of their lives. After the death of her estranged husband, Mrs Nguyện returns home, bearing his urn and his pet cu li, a pygmy slow loris. Back in Hanoi, she is greeted with unfamiliarity: the city is hardly what she remembers, and her niece is now a young adult preparing for her wedding. While the couple teeter towards a new beginning, Mrs Nguyện dwells within fragments of the past. Besides revealing intergenerational tensions, the narratives of the two women form an affecting depiction of how memories underpin our existence, from their accretion to remembrance. Shot in lustrous monochrome, the film reveals the melancholy of the human condition: the ineluctable passage of time, where only reminiscences are left to dam the flow.”
From the jury members of 22nd Asian Film Festival in Roma: “An intimate portrait of a woman grappling with the past. Shot in a black and white that seems to filter time, Cu Li Never Cries is a film that remains. It remains in the gaze of the actress, extraordinary in her silent presence; it remains in the suspended atmosphere, poised between the decadent and the nostalgic, the absurd and the tender. It is a work that does not seek effects, but works by subtraction, allowing sadness to surface with grace, almost with modesty. And precisely for this reason, perhaps, it is memorable: because it touches us where we are most fragile, without ever forcing, as only true cinema knows how to do.”
Cast: Minh Châu, Hoàng Hà, Hà Phương, Xuân An Director: Phạm Ngọc Lân Writer: Phạm Ngọc Lân & Nghiêm Quỳnh Trang Producer companies: Cadence Studio & Ân Nam Productions Co-producers: Claire-Agnes Lajoumard (Acrobates Films); Bianca Balbuena-Liew & Bradley Liew (Epicmedia); Su-Ching Teh (Purple Tree Content) & Weijie Lai (E&W Films), and Verona Meier (Ape&Bjørn) Camera: Vũ Hoàng Triều, Nguyễn Vinh Phúc, Nguyễn Phan Linh Đan Production Designer: Nghiêm Quỳnh Trang Editor: Julie Béziau Colorist: Yov Moor Sound Mixer: Bruno Ehlinger Sound Editor: Arnaud Soulier, Hoàng Thu Thủy
SELECTED SCREENING AND AWARDS: – GWFF Best First Feature Award, 74th Berlinale Panorama, Berlin, Germany (world premiere) – Official Selection, New Directors | New Films, NYC, USA (North American premiere) – SIFF Highlights – World Debut, Shanghai International Film Festival, China – Best Performance Award to actress Minh Châu, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, Spain – Best Picture Award, International Competition, Jeonju International Film Festival, South Korea (Asian premiere) – Future Voice Award (Best First Feature award), Alternativa Film Award 2024 – Best Fiction Feature Film, Sharjah Film Platform 7, UAE – Best Picture Award, Asian Competition, Da Nang Asian Film Festival DANAFF II, Vietnam – Special Mention, International Feature Film Competition, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival – BIEFF, Romania – FIPRESCI Prize, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Canada – NETPAC Award, Qcinema, the Philippines _ Best FilmAward, 22nd Asian Film Festival, Roma, Italy _ Best Director, the Mint Chinese Film Festival 2025, Keswick, UK _ Prix du Jury, 26ème Festival International de Cinéma Asiatique de Tours FICAT, France, 2025 _ Best Feature Fiction, 22nd Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF), Nepal, 2025
The project is selected to l’Atelier – festival de Cannes 2017, Busan APM 2016, Locarno Open Doors Hub 2019, Tokyo Talents 2017 and SEAFIC 2016-2017
