HCM CITY — Three Vietnamese films will be screened at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival, to be held from May 17 to 28. 

Culi Không Bao Giờ Khóc (Sloth Monkey Never Cries) and Vị (Taste) will compete in the category of L’Atelier, which targets and gives production and funding opportunities for young, emerging filmmakers.

Both films reflect trends of the last decade in the country’s cinema industry.

Culi Không Bao Giờ Khóc is the first feature project directed by 31-year-old Phạm Ngọc Lân of Hà Nội, one of the city’s young talents in film.

The story is about a Vietnamese woman who spends a long trip alone around Europe, taking her the dead body of her husband, who was a security officer at a zoo, back to her homeland

The film competed in the Asian Project Market category at the 21^st Busan International Film Festival last year.

Vị was directed by 27-year-old Lê Bảo of HCM City.

The work depicts the daily life of a Nigerian football player in HCM City, who is jobless and faces obstacles in making a living.

It was presented as the Project with the Most Potential in the Southeast Asian Film Lab category at the Singapore Film Festival 2016.   

Female director Nguyễn Phương Anh’s Vợ Ba (The Third Wife) was also selected to be screened at the festival.

The film depicts the tragedy of a rural women living in a small village in north Việt Nam in the late 19^th century. She faces internal conflicts as her parents want her to marry an older man.

The film features People’s Artist Như Quỳnh and Vietnamese-French actress Trần Nữ Yên Khê.

This year, Spanish film director and screenwriter Pedro Almodóvar has been selected as president of the jury for the Cannes festival. — VNS