The Sisters

Born with unusual facial features, Cám suffers the abuse of her family quietly. But when her father decides to sacrifice her to a mythical forest monster, Cám sets out to burn down the world. A macabre fairytale set in medieval Vietnam.

In Vietnamese filmmaker Trần Hữu Tấn’s supernatural body horror The Sisters, the notion that beauty is socially determined takes a literal turn. Cám is subject to abuse not just by her parents, but her entire village. She finds solace in the company of her pretty sister Tam, the apple of the family’s eye and the kindly servant boy Bam. But when her father decides to offer her as human sacrifice to ward off a hereditary curse, Cám turns against the world. 

A Cinderella-like fairytale, a mediaeval revenge saga and a grisly folktale about virgin-devouring demons, Cám is nothing if not an omnivorous beast. This eclecticism is reflected in the film’s dynamic form as Trần applies himself to finding new ways of presenting genre conventions and character interactions, painting his incandescent images in corrosive colours. More crucially, his film subverts the sisterly rivalry of the original fairytale to develop a tender bond between Cám and Tam that, beyond their skin-deep contrasts, enables solidarity in a patrilineal, malevolent society. The Sisters reincarnates timeless material in a modern avatar.

– Srikanth Srinivasan

Trailer

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