Competition

The River Runs Still

Screening Schedule

Details

©The River Runs Still

<Synopsis>

Lua, a stateless woman living on the Mekong, believes she has finally secured legal papers to start a new life on land. She joyfully gives away her belongings — only to discover the documents are invalid. When her husband Ut returns drunk and desperate, the fragile world they built collapses. A sudden accident forces Lua to confront a choice that will define both their lives.

Blending fiction with lived testimonies from stateless communities in Vietnam’s borderlands, The River Runs Still is a portrait of belonging and loss, echoing the millions of people across Asia who remain without a country to call their own.

<Staff>

Directing and Script: Mai Huyền Chi
Director of Photography: Lê Kim Hưng
Set Design: Ngô Đình Bảo Châu
Music Composer: Hà Thúy Hằng
Editor: Nguyễn Hồng Anh
Sound Mix: Saigon Sound
Post-Production Supervisor: Bùi Công Anh
Colorist: Bùi Công Anh
Producer: Mai Huyền Chi
Line Producer: Thảo Quiêng
Co-producers: John Badalu, Thy Trang
Executive Producers: Mai Huyền Chi, Hồ Nguyên Ngọc

<movie information>

Year of Production:2024
Running Time:15min
Country/Region:Vietnam
Language of Dialogue:Vietnamese
Subtitle Language:English,Japanese
Film Rating:PG12 / Parental Guidance 12

©︎マイ・フェン・チー

＜Director＞

MAI Huyen Chi

Mai Huyền Chi is a Vietnamese writer-director creating intimate films about displacement, memory, and the search for belonging. Working across fiction and documentary, she focuses on characters caught between worlds—exploring how personal and political histories intersect in everyday life.

Her debut short documentary Down the Stream (2015) was a Vimeo Best of the Year finalist and screened at Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. Her fiction debut The River Runs Still premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival, continuing her exploration of stateless experience through poetic realism.

Her latest documentary 50 Years of Forgetting (2025), commissioned by Al Jazeera, examines how war's aftermath persists in contemporary Vietnam—expanding her investigation into how displacement and memory shape identity across generations.

She is currently developing her debut feature The River Knows Our Names (Tokyo Talents Award winner, 2024), which will complete her trilogy on statelessness and belonging.
©︎ホー・グエン・ゴック

＜Producer＞

HO Nguyen Ngoc

Hồ Nguyên Ngọc started her career in TV shows and quickly moved into commercial productions, managing large-scale international projects for brands such as PepsiCo and Laroche. After working as a senior producer, Ngọc was promoted to executive producer at Viewfinder Production House (Vietnam), and finally, eventually found her own production company, Dabe.