HÀ NỘI — Nine films from Peru, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay and Venezuela -- whose embassies are all part of the festival organising committee -- will be screened during the fourth annual Latin American Film Festival from today to Saturday in Hà Nội.

"We expect Vietnamese audiences to learn more about the unique aspects and rich culture of Latin America through the films," said Cuban Ambassador Herminio Lopez Diaz. “We selected different film genres, including sports, history, romance, animation and comedy, to introduce to festival audiences.”

A film about football in Chile will open the event. Football Stories consists of three vignettes about the lives of young Chileans and their passions and frustrations surrounding one of the century’s most important sports rituals.

The festival will also screen two films which premiered last year.

Colombia’s El abrazo de la serpiente (Embrace of the Serpent) is the story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and the last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of 40 years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.

Sin hijos (No Kids) from Argentina, features a romantic storyline about a couple named Gabriel and Vicky. Vicky has no interest in dating a man with children, so Gabriel begins a harrowing effort to date her while hiding all traces of his eight-year-old daughter.

A film about LGBT issues will be screened this year, too. Azul y no tan Rosa (Blue and Not So Pink) esplores the life of Diego, a young and successful photographer, whose life is turned upside down after a tragic accident. As his partner lies in a coma, Diego must care for the partner’s son as the two adapt to life together.

Other films to be screened include Peru’s Rodencia y el Diente de la Princesa (Rodencia and the Princess Tooth), Cuba’s Habanastation (...), Panama’s Rompiendo la Ola (Breaking the Wave), as well as En el Ombligo del Cielo (In the middle of Heaven) from Mexico, and Artigas la Redota (Artigas’s Portrait) from Uruguay.

The nine Latin American films will all be screened at the National Cinema Centre on 87 Láng Hạ Street in Hà Nội. Free tickets can be obtained at the gate. All movies include English and Vietnamese subtitles.  — VNS