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‘Dearest Sister’ Dives into the Horrors of Family Relationships
“A village girl travels to the Lao capital, Vientiane, to care for her rich cousin who has lost her sight and gained the ability to communicate with the dead.”
Dearest Sister, directed by Mattie Do, can best be understood through the complicated familial relationships that are at its core, which blend love and betrayal within the situational reality of class structures. Nok (played by Amphaiphun Phommapunya) exists in an unsettled position throughout much of the film. When she arrives at her cousin’s home, she is an outsider — the camera peering with her into the home as the servants ignore her and the husband continues to speak English, a language she doesn’t understand. The scenes provide an intense feeling of isolation, which continues even as she is introduced the next day to her cousin Ana (played by Vilouna Phetmany).
Nok exists in an odd liminal space within the home. Although she’s family, she has been brought there to help and serve Ana. She’s too much of a servant to achieve closeness with the family and, as a cousin, too much a part of the family to be welcome among the servants.
