39th Venice Critics’ Week
Grand Prize and Closing Film “Made in Le Groupe Ouest”
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A double success
Don’t Cry, Butterfly & Little Jaffna
The film “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” by Vietnamese director Dương Diệu Linh won the Grand Prize in the parallel section of the Venice Biennale. Emerging from the 2021 LIM | Less is More programme, this debut feature captivated the attention of the international jury.
The film tells the story of Tam, a diligent wedding venue staffer, who discovers her husband’s affair on live TV. Rather than confronting him, she enlists a powerful spell master to win back his love. Tam’s daughter, Ha, pours her frustration into vivid fantasies of a brighter future abroad. Meanwhile, a mysterious House Spirit, visible only to the women, lurks beneath their cracked, leaky ceiling.
With its universal yet unique themes, this feature stood out as a poignant and daring work.
A bittersweet story about family, set within four walls that become a powerful metaphor for contemporary society.
Artistic Director of the Critics' Week
Meanwhile, the film “Little Jaffna” by Lawrence Valin, emerging from Le Groupe Ouest’s Annual Selection in 2018, was chosen to close this edition. This debut feature offers an unprecedented immersion into the Parisian Tamil community, blending elements of police infiltration films with those of a social chronicle. An audacious mix that Cineuropa praised for its originality and freshness, describing the film as “an unusual, refreshing and eminently pleasing cinematographic marriage within the landscape of young French cinema.”
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“Don’t Cry, Butterfly” and “Little Jaffna” demonstrate that human, sensitive stories deeply rooted in specific cultural contexts can resonate beyond borders.
We wish their directors similar success at the Toronto International Film Festival, where both films will also be presented.