Dark Light Voyage

Synopsis

After a devastating discovery about the fate of a friend now confined to a mental institution, the director and his young daughter set out on a 1 700 kilometer long train journey from the north to the south of Vietnam, hoping to regain harmony and find answers to some questions along the way. His daughter’s inquisitive narrative exposes philosophical reflections on life’s journeys and the fate of people surviving in areas still suffering from the events of the Vietnam War. These are complemented by shots of everyday and highly stylized images. The film finds inspiration in Zen Buddhism and the belief of the Vietnamese Ruc tribe in a primordial fire that accompanies humanity.

Director Biography

Tin Dirdamal (Monterrey, Mexico, 1982) is a self-taught filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist with formal studies in engineering. Each one of his films is unalike, seemingly made by different people. He is obsessed with reinvention. Also self- taught in psychology and architecture, his most useful tools are doubt and contradiction. He has received grants from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute and Rockefeller Media Artists. Eva Cadena (Mexico) is a climber, painter and filmmaker. In 2019-2021, she collaborated with filmmaker Tin Dirdamal to create the feature film Dark Light Voyage. During this period she learned to speak Vietnamese.