Cu Li Never Cries  I  Cu Li Không Bao Giờ Khóc

post-production

Drama, 100 min, 2023

Cu Li Never Cries recounts the stifling summer days that have stirred up a whirlwind of events and emotions in the life of MRS. NGUYỆN, a hydropower industry retiree. Upon the death of her German husband whom she has not seen for 20 years, Mrs. Nguyện leaves for Berlin where she receives two inheritances: an ashes urn and a slow loris (Cu Li). Alone in a foreign land, she encounters absurd situations as the funeral rites unfold.

Mrs. Nguyện comes back to Hanoi only to be caught up in the fuss of a rushed wedding preparation: her niece was impregnated by a provincial boy. Adhering to her late husband’s will, Mrs. Nguyện returns to the hydroelectric dam where they first met; the planning for the power plant’s anniversary is underway. Stuck between the past and the present, between anticipation and anguish, in unceasing solitude and inquietude, Mrs. Nguyện arrives at her niece’s wedding in the jungle. A fire spreads. The loris to which she has grown attached disappears. In trance, Mrs. Nguyện. dashes to seek for it..

Director: Phạm Ngọc Lân

Writer: Phạm Ngọc Lân & Nghiêm Quỳnh Trang

Producer company: Cadence Studio & Ân Nam Productions

Co-producers: Claire-Agnes Lajoumard – Acrobates Films; Bianca Balbuena-Liew & Bradley Liew – Epicmedia; Su-Ching Teh – Purple Tree Pictures

Camera: Vũ Hoàng Triều, Nguyễn Vinh Phúc, Nguyễn Phan Linh Đan

Production Designer: Nghiêm Quỳnh Trang

The project is selected to l’Atelier – festival de Cannes 2017 , Busan APM 2016, Locarno Open Doors Hub and SEAFIC 2016-2017

Variety