Linh Duong
Writer-director
Vietnam
Linh Duong is a Vietnamese filmmaker who takes special interest in the unconventional depiction of sad, angsty and naggy middle-aged women. Her series of shorts, which is a good blend between her signature quirky sense of humour and magical realism elements, have been competing and winning awards at prestigious film festivals around the world.
Linh previously attended Berlinale Talents in 2020, Asian Film Academy in 2016, Locarno Summer Academy and Bucheon Fantastic Film School in 2015. She is developing her first feature, DON’T CRY, BUTTERFLIES, which recently won Moulin D’andé-CECI Award at Locarno Open Doors 2019, and got selected for Full Circle Lab 2020.
Project
Don’t cry, Butterfly
40-something Tam discovers her husband’s affair and decides to cast a spell, hoping she can voodoo him back into love. Her daughter Ha, however, pleads for a divorce. Tam ignores Ha’s warnings and installs the spell in her room, which awakens the House Spirit. It first appears as an innocent dark spot on the ceiling, but gradually grows into something hideous.
Meanwhile, Ha is also dealing with her own trauma and the fear of turning into her mother, but Tam isn’t aware of it. She’s too busy trying to fix the marriage, even when her instinct says that it’s over. Reality finally slaps Tam in the face when her husband’s pregnant lover shows up at the door. Desperate for an escape, Tam ends up being swallowed by the House Spirit, which has consumed the entire ceiling.
Ha returns home to find her mother turned into a cocoon on the ceiling. She rescues Tam. They finally accept each other, and decide to let go of the thing that’s hindering their happiness.
