VENICE -- The horror-comedy film Mưa Trên Cánh Bướm (Don’t Cry Butterfly), written and directed by young Vietnamese filmmaker Dương Diệu Linh, will have its world premiere in competition at the Venice Critics Week at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. 

Young filmmaker Dương Diệu Linh. -- Photo courtesy of the filmmaker

The film is set in a suburban town near Hà Nội in the early 2000s and tells the story of a middle-aged housewife who finds out that her husband is cheating on her.

Instead of confronting him, she voodoos her husband back into love, but accidentally awakens mysterious supernatural forces in the house.

Don’t Cry, Butterfly is developed from Linh's series of short films, including "Mẹ, Con gái, Những giấc mơ" (Mother, Daughter, Dreams), "Ngọt, mặn" (Sweet, Salty), and "Thiên đường gọi tên" (A Trip to Heaven), all revolving around a middle-aged character.

The filmmaker explores perspectives on femininity, family relationships, and cultural traditions. 

“Don’t Cry, Butterfly embarks on a quest to uncover the true perpetrator behind the women’s suffering through the intertwined worlds of a mother and daughter, leading to a surprising discovery,” said Linh. “It is my attempt to break away from the stereotypical portrayal of sad and powerless women, instead showing them full of life and humour, with a touch of magical realism and fantasy."

The Critics’ Week’s artistic director, Beatrice Fiorentino, describes the film as a mixture of “Feng shui and voodoo, lyricism and magic, with women’s issues at the forefront. It features dreams that crash against a reality mediated only by fantasy. It is an intimate and visionary film, a bittersweet story about family set within four walls that become a powerful metaphor for contemporary society.”

In Don’t Cry, Butterfly, actress Tú Oanh plays the main role along with Lê Vũ Long, Nguyễn Nam Linh, and Bùi Thạc Phong, who is Tú Oanh's son with the renowned Vietnamese director Bùi Thạc Chuyên. 

Dương Diệu Linh, 34, was born in Hà Nội and currently lives in Singapore. Her short film Mother, Daughter, Dreams was screened in the short film competition at the Busan International Film Festival in 2018.

Venice Critics Week is an independent and parallel section of the Venice International Film Festival, one of the largest film festivals in the world.

The programme includes a selection of seven debut films in competition. Notable among them is the film Homegrown by U.S. journalist and filmmaker Michael Premo, narrating the tale of a group of Donald Trump supporters.

In 2014, the Vietnamese film Đập Cánh Giữa Không Trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere), directed by Nguyễn Hoàng Điệp, was selected to compete for the award.

The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival runs from August 28 to September 7. -- VNS