# Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Vietnamese: Bên trong vỏ kén vàng) is a 2023 Vietnamese-language drama film written and directed by Phạm Thiên Ân, in his feature directorial debut. It is a co-production between Vietnam, Singapore, France and Spain.
It had its world premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 24 May 2023, and won the Caméra d'Or, which is awarded for the best first feature film. The film was released in Vietnam on 11 August 2023.

## Plot

Thien's sister-in-law Teresa dies in a motorcycle accident in Saigon, although her five-year-old son Dao survives the crash. Thien takes both Dao and his sister-in-law's body to the rural village where he grew up. There, he sees life in the countryside in a series of loosely connected events. A funeral and other Catholic ceremonies are conducted. Thien meets an old man who fought in the Vietnam War, who tells his stories of surviving when so many did not. He goes out hunting with his host and bonds with Dao, and awkwardly reconnects with Thao, a childhood friend he had attempted to form a romantic relationship with when younger, but who has since become a nun. He arranges for Dao to be taken to the school where she works, where most of the students are highlanders.
Thien leaves the village rather than stick around for an event, and begins aimlessly searching for his missing brother Tam, perhaps to learn of his fate, and tell him that the wife he abandoned was dead and his son needed to be cared for. He also learns that his brother had briefly gone to seminary and had considered becoming a priest, before deciding to marry instead. He shows a wedding picture of the two found on Teresa's body in a village he thinks might be connected, and talks with people there, but the search is ultimately fruitless.

## Cast

* Lê Phong Vũ as Thiện
* Nguyễn Thịnh as Đạo
* Nguyễn Thị Trúc Quỳnh as Thảo
* Vũ Ngọc Mạnh as Trung

## Production

The film was produced by Van Thi Tran for JK Film (Vietnam) and Jeremy Chua for Potocol (Singapore), in coproduction with Deuxième Ligne Films (France), Zorba Production (Vietnam) and Fasten Films (Spain).
Pham Thien An's 2019 Cannes short film entry, Stay Awake, Be Ready, which won the Illy Short Film Award in the Directors' Fortnight section, inspired Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell.
On RFI Vietnamese radio, the "cocoon shell" is said by director Pham Thien An to be a metaphor or symbol for people trapped chasing after fame or fortune and to escape the "shell" requires some soul-searching revolving around the question of 'What to live for'.

## Release

The film was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 24 May 2023. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'A Window on Asian Cinema' section and screened there in October 2023.
World sales are handled by Cercamon. The film was theatrically released in Vietnam by CJ CGV on 11 August 2023. Nour Films distributed the film in France on 20 September 2023, under the title L'Arbre aux papillons d'or. The film was given a limited release in the US by Kino Lorber starting on 19 January 2024.

## Reception
### Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 54 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Following its own alluringly inscrutable path between past, present, reality, and dreams, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell rewards patient viewers with an absorbing spiritual odyssey." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On AlloCiné, the film received an average rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 26 reviews from French critics.
Guy Lodge of Variety called it "challenging but seductive art cinema that invites comparisons to such titans as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tsai Ming-liang and even Theo Angelopoulos, without feeling derivative of any." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian awarded the movie five stars out of five, describing it as a "jewel of slow cinema (that) is a wondrous meditation on faith and death."

### Accolades

| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| Asia Pacific Screen Awards | 3 November 2023 | Young Cinema Award | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |
| Asian Film Awards | 10 March 2024 | Best New Director | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Asian Film Awards | 10 March 2024 | Best Sound | Vương Gia Bảo, Toh Xander | Nominated |
| Da Nang Asian Film Festival | 6 July 2024 | Best Film - Asian In-competition Films | Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell | Nominated |
| Da Nang Asian Film Festival | 6 July 2024 | Best Director - Asian In-competition Films | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |
| Da Nang Asian Film Festival | 6 July 2024 | Best Lead Actor - Asian In-competition Films | Lê Phong Vũ | Nominated |
| Cannes Film Festival | 27 May 2023 | Caméra d'Or | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |
| Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montreal | 15 October 2023 | Louve d'Or | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Gotham Awards | 2 December 2024 | Best International Feature | Thien An Pham, Jeremy Chua, Tran Van Thi | Nominated |
| International Cinephile Society | 11 February 2024 | Best Picture | Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell | Nominated |
| International Cinephile Society | 11 February 2024 | Best Cinematography | Đinh Duy Hưng | Runner-up |
| International Cinephile Society | 11 February 2024 | Best Debut Film | Phạm Thiên Ân | Runner-up |
| Independent Spirit Awards | 22 February 2025 | Someone to Watch Award | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Independent Spirit Awards | 22 February 2025 | Best Cinematography | Đinh Duy Hưng | Nominated |
| Jerusalem Film Festival | 23 July 2023 | The Nechama Rivilin Award for Best International Film | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Melbourne International Film Festival | 19 August 2023 | Bright Horizons Award | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Montclair Film Festival | 29 October 2023 | Fiction Feature | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Pingyao International Film Festival | 16 October 2023 | Roberto Rossellini Best Film Award | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |
| San Sebastián International Film Festival | 30 September 2023 | Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize | Phạm Thiên Ân | Nominated |
| Singapore International Film Festival | 10 December 2023 | Silver Screen Award for Best Asian Feature Film | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |
| Tokyo FILMeX | 26 November 2023 | Grand Prize | Phạm Thiên Ân | Won |