Dearest Sister
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Dearest Sister ( Lao: ນ້ອງຮັກ) is a 2016 Lao
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
that was released in the US on September 25, 2016 and Laos on May 11, 2017. It is the second feature film directed by
Mattie Do Mattie Do () is a Laotian American, Laotian-American film director. She is Laos's first and only female film director and the first horror film director from Laos. Career ''Chanthaly'' Her directorial debut, ''Chanthaly'' () (2012), was the fir ...
. It was selected as the Laotian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Bes ...
at the
90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...
, the first time that Laos has submitted a film for consideration in this category, but it was not nominated. The film is about a Lao village girl who travels to
Vientiane Vientiane (, ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Laos. Situated on the banks of the Mekong, Mekong River at the Thailand, Thai border, it comprises the five urban districts of Vientiane Prefecture and had a population of 840,000 ...
to care for her rich cousin who has mysteriously lost her sight, and somehow gained the ability to communicate with the dead. Matters are further driven by the cousin’s ambivalent marriage with an Estonian white migrant, who has his own dark secrets to hide. Do has cited the 19th century ballet ''
La Bayadère ''La Bayadère'' ("the temple dancer") ( ru. «Баядерка», ''Bayaderka'') is an 1877 ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by the French choreographer Marius Petipa to music by Ludwig Minkus and libretto by . The ba ...
'' as a source of inspiration for the film.


Plot

Nok is a naive village girl who travels to
Vientiane Vientiane (, ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Laos. Situated on the banks of the Mekong, Mekong River at the Thailand, Thai border, it comprises the five urban districts of Vientiane Prefecture and had a population of 840,000 ...
to take care of her cousin Ana, made wealthy from her marriage to a foreigner, who is suddenly ill. Jakob has asked Nok to come since Ana has been struck by a mysterious illness which not only blurs her vision but enables her to see the recently dead. After one of her visions Ana recites numbers, numbers which she can't remember but which Nok uses to play the lottery. She wins and buys a new phone. After the mother of one of the supermarket venders has a stroke, Ana has another vision and Nok once again wins the lottery, only to have her winnings stolen by Ana's servants who threaten to tell Ana that Nok has been stealing from her. Meanwhile Ana and Nok become close and Ana begins to treat her more as a friend, calling her little sister and buying her clothes. Ana has a vision that her mother has died and collapses on the floor chanting numbers. When she calls her mother she is fine, but she dies a few hours later after being the victim of a hit and run. After hearing that Ana predicted her mother's death before reciting numbers Ana's father correctly guesses that the numbers were related to the lottery. However Nok gives Ana's father the incorrect number and pockets the winnings for herself. Shortly after Ana receives a phone call from Nok's parents complaining that they have not been receiving any money from Nok. Nok admits that she spent the money on herself and that the numbers Ana had been reciting were correct lottery numbers causing a rift between the two. Ana goes to Thailand to have an operation to "correct" her vision. While she and Jakob are away the servants hold a drunken revelry destroying the house. Upon their return Ana and Jakob fire the servants and Jakob leaves Ana in Nok's care while he goes to attend to his failing business. Ana is essentially blind upon her return since her eyes are bandaged and must be cleaned and kept covered for a week. Nok refuses to tend to Ana and begins starving her and rearranging the furniture so she cannot get around. Ana manages to steal Nok's cellphone and lock her in the washroom while she calls Jakob begging for his help. Shortly after she has a vision where he "appears" to her only to disappear and cause her to recite more numbers which Nok overhears from the bathroom. Jakob arrives at the compound intending to rescue Ana but is struck in the head by the servants who are angry about being fired and have returned to steal what they can. They lock Ana and a slowly dying Jakob in the washroom with Nok. In the washroom Nok complains about the way Ana treated her while Ana claims that she was always kind to Nok. Taking her bandages off, Ana has a final vision of both her and Nok both of them fatally injured. Nok, gathering up a knife asks Ana what she is looking at, while Ana, picking up a blade, answers "Nothing."


Cast

The film stars Estonian actor
Tambet Tuisk Tambet Tuisk (born 23 May 1976) is an Estonian actor. He has appeared in more than twenty films since 1999. Selected filmography References External links * 1976 births Living people Estonian male film actors {{Estonia-actor-stub ...
(''
The Poll Diaries ''The Poll Diaries'' () is a 2010 German drama film directed by Chris Kraus. ''The Poll Diaries'' was the most expensive film that had ever been made in Estonia at the time. Later, ''Truth and Justice'' (2019) became the most expensive Estonian ...
'', ''
December Heat ''December Heat'' () is a 2008 historic action drama film about the 1924 Estonian coup d'état attempt directed by Asko Kase and starring Sergo Vares and Liisi Koikson. Plot "December 1924. It's only a matter of minutes whether Estonian young i ...
''), Lao music and radio personality Vilouna Phetmany, and Amphaiphun Phommapanya, the lead from Do's directorial debut ''
Chanthaly ''Chanthaly'' (Lao language, Lao: ຈັນທະລີ) is a 2012 Lao horror film directed by Mattie Do and written by Christopher Larsen. It is the first horror film to be written and directed entirely in Laos and the first Lao feature film dire ...
''.


Funding

An
Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...
campaign collected 40,141 USD by July 2, 2014, raising 134% of the targeted 30,000 USD. The film had its world premiere at
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...
in Austin in September 2016 as well as at the
Lund International Fantastic Film Festival The Lund International Fantastic Film Festival (, abbreviated FFF or LIFFF) is a popular film festival in Lund in southern Sweden that mainly shows fantasy, science fiction and horror films. LIFFF is the largest fantastic/ genre film festival i ...
in October 2016 in
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.


See also

*
List of submissions to the 90th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of submissions to the 90th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award ...
*
List of Laotian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film Laos submitted a film for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film for the first time in 2017. The award is handed out annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to a feature-length motion picture prod ...


References


External links

* * {{IMDb title, 4701908, Dearest Sister 2016 films 2016 horror films Laotian horror films Films directed by Mattie Do Indiegogo-funded films