Vietnam win five awards at Swiss film festival

"Cu Li Khong Bao Gio Khoc" (Cu Li Never Cries), a full length feature film debut by director Pham Ngoc Lan, won the ARTE International Open Doors and Sorfond awards.

Another Vietnamese film, "Tro Tan Ruc Ro" (Glorious Ashes), directed by Bui Thac Chuyen and produced by Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, won the CNC award.

The other winners were two young directors Duong Dieu Linh and Le Quynh Anh, who got the Moulin d’André-CEC and Rotterdam Lab awards, respectively.

In "Cu Li Khong Bao Gio Khoc", M, a retired worker in Vietnam returns to Berlin after learning her estranged German husband has died, and finds that he has left her an urn with his ashes and Cu Li, his dog. Upon returning to Vietnam, M finds that her pregnant niece Van is rushing into marriage. M begins to recount her own experiences, fearing that Van would make the same mistakes as she did.

The film receives a lot of media attention after it was screened at the film festival. The Variety magazine said it was an impressive mix of Vietnam’s past and present.

This was not the first award for "Tro Tan Ruc Ro". The film had won an award at the Busan Film Festival in 2017.

This year’s Locarno International Film Festival, its 72nd edition, is taking place from August 7-17.