The Unseen River
Pham Ngoc Lan
Vietnam. 2020. 23 min

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.

PHAM NGOC LAN

Phạm Ngọc Lân (1986, Vietnam) is a film director with a background in urban planning and architecture, based between Hanoi and North Carolina. Lân’s debut short film The Story of Ones (2011) has been screened in numerous film festivals and art museums, including Visions du Réel (Swizterland), CPH-DOX (Denmark), New Cinema and Contemporary Art – Rencontres Internationales (Paris/Berlin) and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. His first two short fiction films, Another City (2016) and Blessed Land (2019) both premiered at the Berlinale Shorts Competition. Lan is currently developing his first feature film Cu Li Never Cries.

Filmography

The Unseen River, 2020
Blessed Land, 2019
Another City, 2016
The Story of Ones, 2011

CONTACT

Wouter Jansen : info@squareeyesfilm.com