chín (ripe)
2025 · 20m · Canada
Directed by Solara Thanh Bình Đặng
Tones: contemplative, mythic, sensual
On her family's durian farm in the Mekong Delta, a young Vietnamese woman must decide whether to enter an arranged marriage as earthly and spiritual forces weigh on her fate.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the magical-realism-meets-family-obligation story to genuflect toward the supernatural; Đặng just lets the durian farm *be* mythic without winking, which is either radical restraint or the most subversive move possible—I'm still not sure which.
A precisely composed meditation on lineage and constraint, where the sensual specificity of the durian—its ripeness, its seasons, its cultural weight—becomes the formal language for examining duty and desire; this is cinema aware of its own symbolism without surrendering to it.
The decision to shoot the interior spaces of the farm with that particular warmth—letting practical light do the work of suggesting both domesticity and enchantment—is what transforms a premise about arranged marriage into something that *feels* like a ghost story without requiring a single supernatural beat.
Reviews
Like the durian, the short keeps its spiky outer shell. Yet, inside lies a comfort. The silent call of memory will always haunt us, but also, guide our way.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2025, World premiere
- Vancouver International Film Festival 2025
- Festival du nouveau cinéma 2025, Special Mention - National Short Film Competition
- TIFF Canada's Top Ten 2025, Selection