SFP Montage: day two

SFP Montage is a series of special projects and initiatives linked to Sharjah Arts Foundation’s annual Sharjah Film Platform (SFP) festival that forges new associations among the works and expands their reach beyond Sharjah. This evening’s films:

Upshot dir Maha Haj (2024, 34 min: still above) 

After suffering unimaginable loss, Suleiman and Lubna retreat to an isolated farm; there they tend to their crops and engage in impassioned debates about their five children’s life choices. One day, a stranger arrives to reveal a harrowing truth from their past … Arabic with English subtitles

Cu Li Không Bao Giờ Khóc (Cu Li Never Cries) dir Phạm Ngọc Lân (2024, 92 min)

After collecting the ashes of her estranged husband from Germany, Mrs Nguyen travels back to Hanoi with Cu Li, his pet pygmy slow loris. On her return, she finds her pregnant niece rushing into marriage and fears the young woman is making the same mistakes that she did … The film weaves together the present with the complexities of Vietnamese history by interspersing the old woman’s longing for the past with the couple’s uncertain future. Vietnamese with Arabic and English subtitles