A scene from Horses of God (Les Chevaux de Dieu) that opens the second FESPACO in Việt Nam. Photo courtesy of Cercle Rouge Productions

HÀ NỘI — A programme to introduce African films screened in the Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) will take place in Hà Nội from today until the end of this month.

Held for the second time in Việt Nam, the event is jointly organised by the Moroccan Embassy in Việt Nam, the Regional Office for Asia-Pacific of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), the French Institute in Việt Nam, and the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegation to Việt Nam.

It will offer Vietnamese film fans the chance to explore the continent through movies as African cinema is not widely popular in Việt Nam.

The free event, which is open from June 26-30, introduces films that have won many awards at prestigious film festivals around the world.

Among the movies screened, Horses of God, Night of the Kings, Dancing in the Dust, Freda, and Sun, will help the audience understand more about the daily life of African people and the intersection of past and present. This series of works has toured and won numerous international film festivals in France, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. Most of them are films that have won awards at FESPACO over the years.

The African film festival in Việt Nam opens with Horses of God, screened on June 26. The film narrates a fictional story while drawing inspiration from the real-life historical events surrounding a series of suicide bombings that rocked Casablanca in 2003.

Its main character is a 10-year-old boy living in a slum area. Growing up in poverty and hardship, he is led down the path of becoming an extremist Muslim by circumstance. The film reaches a climax as he faces the danger of becoming a martyr for his faith.

Horses of God won the Best Screenplay Award at FESPACO and the Francois Chalais Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013. The Francois Chalais Award is given to works that celebrate human values and have strong journalistic impact. The film was also Morocco's official submission for the 2013 Academy Awards.

The movies will be shown with Vietnamese, French and English subtitles, at Vietnamese Film Institute, located on 523 Kim Mã Street, Ba Đình District. Entrance is free.

FESPACO is the largest film festival in Africa. It has been organised biennially since 1969. The 28th FESPACO themed “African Cinema and Culture of Peace” took place in Burkina Faso from February 25 to March 4, screening 170 films, 15 of which were nominated for the "Yennenga Golden Stallion” award.

The first FESPACO in Việt Nam was held in March 2022, introducing four special feature films from Morocco, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Rwanda. VNS

Film screening schedule