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Giòng Sông Không Nhìn Thấy I The Unseen River Vietnam | Laos Logline: Stories told along the river: a woman reunites with her ex-lover at a hydroelectric plant; meanwhile, a young man travels downstream to a temple in search of a cure for his insomnia. Director’s Statement: This is an assignment from Luang Prabang Film Festival. The festival gives 5 fiction filmmakers in 5 South East Asian countries a chance to make films about Mekong River, topic Mekong 2030. The final works will be shown as an anthology film. The Unseen River examines the metaphorical connection between the Mekong River, time, and sleep: In various art forms, the river is often compared to the flow of time. In that way, the characters’ journeys downstream and upstream are metaphors for their journey through time. In this short film, MRS. NGUYỆN travels upstream to visit her former place of work (an old hydroelectric plant). Based on the reading above, her journey can be understood as moving backward through time to an event in the past that shaped her subsequent life, just like how the hydroelectric dam blocked and redirected the river. In the other storyline: a young couple – THỰC and his GIRLFRIEND, in the same way, travels to the future in search of a cure for a present ailment (insomnia). An absurd and illogical choice of youth, but just as one character says: the worst thing about not being able to sleep is not being able to dream. And without dreams, it’s difficult to see the past and feel the touch of the future. This premise might seem conflicting at first but is nonetheless provocative and proposes a challenge: How can the characters journey through time while they are very much standing still in the present? I believe that cinema is able to tackle this.
‘Giòng Sông Không Nhìn Thấy’ khảo sát mối liên hệ giữa dòng sông, thời gian và giấc ngủ: Trong các loại hình nghệ thuật, dòng sông luôn được ví với dòng chảy thời gian, do vậy hành trình ngược và xuôi sông cũng là ẩn dụ cho việc du hành thời gian. Trong cuốn phim, nhân vật BÀ NGUYỆN đi ngược tới thượng lưu để thăm lại nơi làm việc trước kia của mình – một đập thuỷ điện cũ. Theo lối hiểu kể trên, đây cũng là hành trình đi ngược thời gian của BÀ NGUYỆN để quay lại thời điểm quan trọng trong quá khứ, thời điểm làm thay đổi cuộc đời của chính bà đúng như cách con đập chắn ngang và thay đổi hướng chảy của dòng sông. Ở tuyến truyện còn lại: Hai nhân vật trẻ tuổi – THỰC và BẠN GÁI – cũng theo cách ấy, tìm lối vào tương lai để tìm phương thức chạy chữa cho căn bệnh mất ngủ của hiện tại. Đây tuy một quyết định nực cười và không logic như bao quyết định bốc đồng khác của tuổi trẻ, nhưng căn bệnh đó rõ ràng là cần chữa trị, vì đúng như lời một nhân vật trong phim: điều tệ hại nhất của việc không thể ngủ là không thể mơ. Và khi không thể mơ, thì con người không chỉ khó thấy lại được quá khứ mà còn khó có cảm giác chạm tới tương lai. Tương lai của hai người trẻ, như vậy trở nên mơ hồ khó nắm bắt. Một ý niệm thoạt nghe mâu thuẫn nhưng bên trong chứa đầy khiêu khích và khơi gợi thách thức: Làm sao các nhân vật có thể chu du với thời gian trong khi vẫn đứng yên trong hiện tại? Tôi có niềm tin rằng điện ảnh làm được điều đó. Cast: Wean, Naomi, Minh Châu, Nguyễn Hà Phong, Hoàng Hà, Mạc Can Selected Screenings and Awards: … Herb Shellenberger (Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020): “Following on from his widely screened and hugely accomplished 2019 short Blessed Land, Phạm Ngọc Lân’s The Unseen River cements the Vietnamese filmmaker’s place as one of the most bold and unique visionaries of contemporary new cinema. The film explores the magic, beauty and intensity of the Mekong River by following several humans and one animal as they all traverse its banks. A young couple visit a pair of monks in a futuristic temple; two former lovers reunite by chance years after their affair; and a spunky black-and-white dog deftly navigates the river landscape tying them all together. Magic and melodrama mix and meld mellifluously along the Mekong.” “Two more “M” words: memory and melancholy. The rushing Mekong is often compared to the flowing of time itself. Yet while time ostensibly flows in a forward direction, we regularly experience currents that drag our memory to and fro, strong pulls of an inescapable undertow lurking beneath the surface. The woman and the fisherman reminisce about their affair 30 years earlier, their conversation about separation, time and loss punctuated by wistful folk music. At the same time, the young, tattooed couple express their difficulty projecting their relationship into the future: “[Our parents] want us to hurry [to get married] but we can’t decide yet. Not because we’re not in love. We just can’t see our future.” “Though the characters express an abundance of uncertainty, Phạm Ngọc Lân’s filmmaking is confidently assured. Gentle, subtly kinetic camera movements seem to guide the viewer along as if by hand, with delicate zooms into the faces of each character conveying their inner emotions better than any dialogue ever could. In a brisk twenty minutes, The Unseen River establishes a remarkably-crafted atmosphere, a minimal yet engrossing narrative and characters who feel fully-fleshed and roundly dimensional. A huge part of that is certainly down to the performances. The woman is played skillfully and to full emotion by veteran film and television actress Minh Châu while the young couple’s naturalistic performances are delivered by creators/influencers Naomi & Wean. The pair also provide the kiss-off of an end credit song, the blustery indie-folk-rap mash-up “Retrograde”. The Unseen River comprises part of Mekong 2030, an anthology film of five shorts from different Mekong region countries produced by Luang Prabang Film Festival in Laos.” … Jury’s Statement (19th Concorto Film Festival): “We are fascinated by the unbelievable places, the searching camera, how the film directs our gaze over the sound and the meandering way to tell us this story. A film like a dream. And in the flow of time we lose ourselves completely in the Mekong. Are we already sleeping? Just follow the light on the angle. A film that absorbed and overwhelmed us. The Gran Premio “Asino d’oro” goes to “The Unseen River” by Pham Ngoc Lân.” Jury’s Statement (Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival 2020): “As a homage to the Mekong, the vital vein of life and history that runs through the region, the film invokes a profound sense of poetry in every frame and paces itself to the mystical rhythms rooted in the spiritual fabric of this land. Set adrift only to the uncompromising flow of director Phạm Ngọc Lan’s singular vision, it is a work that cannot be placed anywhere else but here and cannot be told by anyone else but him.” Youth Jury’s Statement (Singapore International Film Festival 31st): “This film was mesmerising, beautiful and affecting, standing out to the Youth Jury for its atmospheric and narrative qualities. Its poetic disposition and immersive engagement supports its meditative exploration of spaces both metaphorical and literal.” … * The Unseen River is one of five shorts from the anthology film MEKONG 2030. Produced by the Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF), MEKONG 2030 is a collection of narratives that envision the future of the Mekong River from different national and cultural perspectives within the region. MEKONG 2030 is funded by The Asia Foundation, Oxfam, Mekong River Commission, and Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation. The other four short films from this project are: Soul River (dir. Kulikar Sotho – Cambodia), The Che Brother (dir. Anysay Keola – Laos), The Forgotten Voices of the Mekong (dir. Sai Naw Kham – Myanmar) and The Line (dir. Anocha Suwichakornpong – Thailand). The film was born out of an urgent need to shine light on the challenges faced by the Mekong River. Set in the year 2030, the narratives aim to inspire audiences to actively protect this critical ecosystem. * Anthology Producers: Gabriel Shaya Kuperman, Alex Curran-Cardarelli |  |  |  |  |  |  |