Chanthaly is a 2013 Laotian horror film. It is the first film of that genre to be produced in the country, and the first feature film directed by Mattie Do. For that matter, it is also the first Laotian film to be directed by a woman.
The title character, Chanthaly, who is suffering from a heart-based disease, suspects that the ghost of her dead mother is trying to speak to her. A change in Chanthaly's medication causes her to struggle to figure out whether these odd encounters with her mother are hallucinations or not.
Mattie Do has uploaded the film to YouTube with English subtitles. See it here
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Tropes present in this film:
- Bottle Episode: A Bottle Movie, actually. It was shot entirely in and around Mattie Do's house.
- Death by Childbirth: This was the fate of Chanthaly's mother, who died while giving birth to her due to her having the same heart disease that Chanthaly has.
- Driven to Suicide: Chanthaly overdoses on her pills, allowing her to fully reach her mother. This action proves to be worthless, however, when it turns out that it's not actually her mother trying to talk to her.
- Hallucinations: Chanthaly can't seem to figure out if her dead mother trying to communicate with her is a hallucination or not. They are indeed not hallucinations, albeit it ends up not being Chanthaly's mother after all.
- Minimalist Cast: Has no more than about six characters.
- No Name Given: Chanthaly's father is never referred to by name.
- Only One Name: Literally nobody in the entire film ever has their last name specified.
- Public Domain: Mattie Do made a crowdfunding campaign to get this film into the public domain. The campaign reached its goal, which not only got the film released into the public domain, but also caused Do to release production materials related to the film, thus open-sourcing the film.
