Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

This hypnotic, transcendental debut feature follows a young man’s mystical journey across a beguiling rural Vietnam.

Thien, a detached and morose Saigon thirtysomething, has little idea that his life is about to be pushed towards a vast spiritual reckoning. After learning of his sister-in-law’s death in a motorcycle accident, he is given temporary custody of her five-year-old son; together, uncle and nephew begin the arduous mission of returning the body to her home village for burial while searching for the boy’s father – Thien’s long-lost brother.

Expanding on his prize-winning 2019 short Stay Awake, Be Ready, Pham Thien An has delivered a breathtaking, formally accomplished tale of family, loss and grief – a spellbinding journey across the seductive, dreamlike landscape of the countryside and the soul, which won the 2023 Caméra d’Or at Cannes. With its hypnotic rhythm, exquisite visuals and textured sound design, Pham’s three-hour film evokes the work of such heavyweight auteurs as Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tsai Ming-liang, confirming it as an unmissable masterpiece from one of cinema’s most gifted new talents.