Cu Li Never Cries
A woman tries to cling onto 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.
* This film contains lighting that may affect photosensitive viewers.
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Phạm Ngọc Lân, whose filmography includes a few well-known shorts, directed a feature as unique as its title. Cu Li is a pygmy slow loris, an endangered animal species found in tropical forests around the Mekong River. This special tiny creature opens its eyes wide, watching over the protagonist's unfortunate life in this movie. The story goes back and forth between important events in human life, such as life and death, marriage and love, or the lack thereof. However, it does not offer direct explanations of how each of such events proceeds directly. The filmmaker takes the gaze of a poet, as opposed to that of a sociologist, to delicately watch, follow, and narrate the characters' lives. The filmmaker uses black and white to highlight such gaze, naturally connecting the moments somewhat mixed up in the time domain, the moments that are sometimes realistic and sometimes dreamy. The characters cherish both joy and pain in the flow of time, in the spirit of the stoic who bear with what their lives have put on their shoulders. (Sung MOON)
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PHẠM Ngọc Lân
