THE UNSEEN RIVER
Phạm Ngọc Lân | 2020 | Vietnam | 23’ | Fiction
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.
Phạm Ngọc Lân is a Vietnamese film director with a background in urban planning and architecture. Lân’s first short fiction films, Another City (2016) and Blessed Land (2019) both premiered at the Berlinale Shorts Competition. Blessed Land also screened at the 4th edition of Ici Vietnam Festival Cinéma in 2021. Lân’s newest short film The Unseen River, which is part of the anthology project MEKONG 2030, premiered at the Pardi di Domani in Locarno Film Festival. Currently, Lân is developing his first feature film Cu Li Never Cries which was selected for L'Atelier 2017 - Festival de Cannes, the Busan Project Market 2016 and the SEAFIC Script Lab.