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The Unseen River
The Unseen River
7.5
/10
3,100 Ratings

THE UNSEEN RIVER

Giòng sông không nhìn thấy

Directed by Phạm Ngọc Lân
Vietnam, 2020
Short, Drama

Synopsis

A confluence of two love stories: one in which a woman reunites with her former lover after 30 years; the other, where a young couple visits a monastery seeking a cure for insomnia. Between streams of past and future, the river offers an oneiric site where timelines intersect.

Synopsis

A confluence of two love stories: one in which a woman reunites with her former lover after 30 years; the other, where a young couple visits a monastery seeking a cure for insomnia. Between streams of past and future, the river offers an oneiric site where timelines intersect.

Our take

Trained in architecture and urban planning, Pham Ngoc Lan crafts a richly textured short that lingers on the gentle ripples of a river or the brutalist structure of a dam with the same intensity. Haunting these evocative landscapes—both ancient and new—are ruminations on love, memory, and regret.