This short film set explores how the “real” is woven into the ethereal, celebrating the phantasmatic nature of Vietnamese storytelling. The supernatural and spiritual have long served as spaces for divining deep truths – insights the everyday often overlooks. The program opens with Don’t Fuck with Ba, a neo-noir revenge tale set in a polyglot world that reveals the layered tensions against the homogenization of Asian identity. Flightpaths follows with a tender story of two brothers journeying through space in search of home and a connection to their father. This same pursuit is then subverted in Mannequin where a husband’s desperation for the return of his wife drives him into a hallucinatory somnambulance.

This otherworldly current continues in The Boy Who Cheated Death, a visually rich dreamscape that abstracts history to chart a path toward healing the unbearable. Healing becomes central in the final two shorts: Out of Time (Hor du Temps) offers a wishful prayer to reclaim what has been lost, while Long’s Long Lost  & Mini Mart grants a fleeting reunion with those who have passed. Together, these films excite, unsettle, and tap into the magic of imagination — reminding us that through these immersive portals, we often fall inward and return, quietly and wholly, to the core of who we are.

By Jenn Thảo Nguyễn