Bitterroot

From The dGenerate Films Collection

Directed by Vera Brunner-Sung

85 minutes / Color
English / English subtitles
Closed Captioned
Release: 2025
Copyright: 2024

In western Montana, recently divorced Lue lives with his mother and keeps to a steady, quiet routine: his maintenance job, working his family stand at the farmers market, fly fishing on the river, and midnight outings for karaoke at the local bar. He lives with his widowed mother, Song, whose efforts to find him another wife are unwelcome and increasingly difficult to avoid. Song worries that she can’t get through to him, and seeks guidance from the ancestors.

The order that Lue clings to begins to crumble when he is suddenly laid off. He hides the truth from Song and scrambles to find work, but she senses something is wrong. She consults her shaman for help, but Lue only pulls further away. Soon Lue discovers that the spirit world may still have influence over his life—and he must finally face the buried pain that destroyed his marriage.

Bitterroot is an impassioned, poetic depiction of Montana's Hmong community. The movie is deeply authentic in its rhythms, from its scenes of rural foraging on lush mountainsides, to its subtle tug-of-war between community pressures and individual hardship. At its best, it's nothing short of a consummate artistic achievement, given its use of image and sound to unearth unspoken lived realities. It's one of the most uplifting movies this year.” —Joy Sauce

“Superbly crafted. What impresses most profoundly about Bitterroot is the film's pristine confidence.” —The Movie Waffler

Credits

Starring Wa Yang, Qu Kue

Select Accolades

  • Special Jury Mention, Tribeca Film Festival
  • Jury Prize, Film Fest Knox

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