Italian documentary She was shot in the northern province of Bắc Ninh by Italian Parsifal Reparato. Photo antropica.org

HÀ NỘI — The 16th European – Vietnamese Documentary Film Festival will take place in Hà Nội and HCM City from September 18 to 26, bringing together documentary voices from across Europe and Việt Nam.

The festival will feature 11 films from Sweden, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Finland, Austria, Norway, France and Wallonie-Bruxelles, along with 14 films made by the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio and independent filmmakers.

“The films participating in this year’s festival are all of high quality, exploring stories about contemporary life, including themes related to women and children,” said Trịnh Quang Tùng, deputy director of the national studio.

Each screening will pair a Vietnamese film with a European one, a format that has defined the festival since its early days. Films from different countries and historical backgrounds are placed side by side, allowing audiences to discover the connections between them.

The festival will open with Professor Hoàng Xuân Sính, directed by Đỗ Thị Huyền Trang, and Sara with All Her Being by Swedish director Gunilla Bresky.

Swedish director Gunilla Bresky and Deputy Director of the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio Trịnh Quang Tùng. Photo DSF

Bresky attended a press conference in Hà Nội on September 15 to introduce her film. The documentary tells the story of Sara Lidman (1923 – 2004), one of Sweden’s most distinctive writers and public voices. She became known for more than her writing.

She challenged Swedish society to confront injustice, spoke out against the US war in Việt Nam and drew attention to the working conditions of miners in northern Sweden. Her activism made her both admired and controversial.

“She visited Việt Nam five times, the first time in 1965,” said Bresky. “She came here because she wanted to find out herself the truth about the war.”

Sara with All Her Being premiered in 2019 and has received international recognition, including the Gemma Firsova Award for Best Film on a Social Philosophical Theme.

The screening offers audiences a chance to encounter both a remarkable Swedish writer and the filmmaker who spent years trying to understand the woman behind her public voice.

A highlight of the festival will be She, directed by Italian filmmaker Parsifal Reparato in 2025. The film documents the lives of Vietnamese women factory workers in the northern province of Bắc Ninh, employed at one of the world’s largest electronic component factories.

The film highlights their struggles and resilience, as well as the global economic structures that shape their daily lives. She questions the structure of the global economy and explores the forces underlying the production of modern consumer electronics.

She won the Feature Documentary Award at the Adelaide Film Festival and the Special Jury Award at Filmer le Travail 2026. It will be screened on September 23 in the presence of director Reparato.

Spanish actor Gustavo Salmerón made his directorial debut with Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle, capturing the winsome eccentricities of his extraordinary mother, who had three dreams having lots of children, owning a monkey and living in a castle.

Spain's Gustavo Salmeron filmed his mother for more than 14 years. Photo filmaffinity.com

Salmerón created a boisterous, hilarious and profoundly affectionate film that won the Documentary Award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Goya Award for Best Documentary.

The film sheds light on Salmeron’s mother personality through more than 14 years of filming, family interviews and one-on-one conversations with her. The film will be screened on September 24.

The festival is organised by Việt Nam’s National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio in cooperation with EUNIC, the network of European Union National Institutes for Culture, and the embassies of several European countries.

All films will be screened in their original languages with English subtitles. Admission is free at 465 Hoàng Hoa Thám Street in Hà Nội and 6 Mạc Đĩnh Chi Street in HCM City. — VNS