Movies at Expo 2020 Dubai show Vietnam as peaceful, dynamic country

DUBAI: Expo 2020 Dubai film aficionados are in for a treat at the Vietnam Pavilion until 5 January 2022.

The Vietnamese Film Week was launched on Thursday as part of the country’s National Day, at Terra Auditorium with an address by Nguyen Phuong Hoa, Vietnam’s Commissioner General Expo 2020 Dubai, UAE news agency WAM reported.

Nguyen Phuong Hoa said the films have been selected to “reflect the current and contemporary life of Vietnam and will appeal to a wide range of audiences.”

“We believe that the Vietnamese Film Week is a wonderful occasion to showcase Vietnam, as a peaceful and dynamic country, its national identity, and to celebrate human values,” she said.

The address was followed by a screening of the first film of the week – ‘Dad, I’m Sorry’ – a film that holds Vietnam’s box office record and won the Silver Lotus Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnam Film Festival 2021. It features the story of a motorbike driver living in a low-income neighbourhood of Ho Chi Minh City who always puts his family first despite his own poor health and money troubles.

Another movie was ‘Furie,’ an action and martial arts masterpiece directed by Le Van Kiet. ‘Furie’ stars Veronica Ngo as Hai Phuong, an ex-gangster living a peaceful life in the countryside who is forced to revisit her violent past when her daughter is kidnapped.

The week also features ‘Father and Son’, a touching family movie that won accolades at the Arizona International Film Festival 2017, Asian Film Festival Barcelona 2019, and Boston International Film Festival 2019. The film was the only Vietnamese movie to be screened at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in 2020.

Other titles include ‘Dreamy Eye,’ an unrequited love story between two childhood friends; ‘The Tailor,’ a comedy putting the Vietnamese traditional dress (Ao dai) in the spotlight; ‘Yellow Flower on the Green Grass,’ a tender tale of innocent love, friendship and brotherhood with a magnificent scene of Vietnamese landscapes; and international sensation ‘Yen’s Life,’ about a young woman forced into marriage at the age of 10.

Each of the films shown during the festival is well-known and critically acclaimed in Vietnam. The programme has been selected to give audiences a taste of Vietnamese culture, featuring films made in the last five years, from diverse genres including drama, comedy, romance and fantasy.

All films screened during Vietnamese Film Week at Expo 2020 Dubai are being shown in the original Vietnamese with subtitles in both English and Arabic.