Cu Li Never Cries
(Cu Li Không Bao Giò Khóc)

The Cu Li or the pygmy loris is a small slow creature with huge eyes living in the forests of Vietnam. Yet, it is from Germany that a woman brings back the tamed primate in her luggage – along with her husband’s ashes – to Vietnam to visit her niece, who is preparing for her wedding despite rather precarious living conditions. The sensual, brilliant black and white of Cu Li…, and its mobile, shimmering shots take the viewer into a world brimming with memories, songs, animals and children – shots that are almost magically arranged (a far cry at any rate from traditional narrative patterns) to capture a country’s suffering, the ballet of generations, each individual’s relationship to history and time. With his debut feature, Pham Ngoc Lân gently and with the composure of a masterful director weaves a dreamlike film that hands on his powers of evocation. FM