Bride Of
Silence
Hat Mua Roi Bao Lau
Doan Minh Phuong, Doan Thanh Nghia
Vietnam | 2005 | 114mins | 35mm | Colour | Subtitled
Set in North Vietnam two hundred years ago a pregnant
girl Ly An brings shame upon her family by having a
child outside of wedlock. The village becomes scandalised
when the insouciant young woman refuses to reveal the
name of the father. Believing she has fornicated with
a demon the villagers set about appeasing their God
by humiliating Ly An and casting mother and child adrift
on the river.
Years later a young man, Hien, asks his dying father,
a woodcarver, about the mother he never knew. Hien’s
father tells him part of the tale and before he expires
he advises him to visit his two ‘brother’
woodcarvers, both of whom are able to complete the story.
Hien sets off to meet the other woodcarvers but is
dissatisfied by their versions of events. A chance discovery
at a monastery leads him closer to uncovering the truth
about his mother and the shared obsession of three men.
This is a stunningly beautiful film. Limpid and captivating,
its themes of passion, loss and discovery are revealed
with serenity on this most exquisite of canvases.
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