Bi, Don’t Be Afraid is the first feature film to be written and directed by Phan Dang Di. It won the Outstanding Asian Project award at the Pusan Film Festival in the Republic of Korea (RoK) in 2007 and was invited to take part in the L’Atelier forum at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It recently received a 50,000 euro (US$67,000) grant from the World Cinema Fund of the Berlin Film Festival.

The film is about family, a women’s long-term suffering and high-minded sensibility, a man’s pleasures and latent fears, and childhood innocence in an adult world of mystery and concealment.

“All these things coexist, “said the film’s director. “The old will die, while children will grow up, but the hope is still there. They accept compromise in order to continue living.”

The film will vie with six others from Denmark, the RoK, France, the US, Singapore and Sweden for the Prize.

International Critics’ Week focuses on discovering and highlighting new talent in filmmaking. Begun in 1962 by the Union of French Film Critics, it aims to throw the spotlight on the first and second works by filmmakers from around the world.

A selection of seven feature films and seven short films will be screened before a board of French and international journalists who will vote after each screening.