A scene of Bains Publics. The film from Wallonie Bruxeles will open the 11th European –Việt Nam Documentary Festival. — Photo coutersy of Wallonie Bruxeles

HÀ NỘI — Two films were shown on Thursday in Hà Nội to open the European – Vietnamese Documentary Film Festival. 

The 11th film festival is held by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and Việt Nam National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio with films from Austria, Wallonie-Bruxelles (the French community in Belgium), France, Italy, Germany, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the UK and Việt Nam. 

"The festival has shown that this cultural exchange and co-operation among European countries and Việt Nam has become closer and well developed," said Nguyễn Quang Tuấn, the studio's director. 

"These films at the festival honestly and vividly reflect life in various countries. Although each documentary has its own view and story to tell, they contribute to bringing different cultures across the world together," he said. 

This year, the festival will show 22 documentaries, many of which have won awards. It will be held from October 1 to 10 in Hà Nội and HCM City. 

At the opening, the audience saw two documentaries entitled Bains Publics and Hành Trình Về Phía Bình Minh (Journey to The Sunrise). 

Directed by Nguyễn Đức Phương, the 45-minute Hành Trình Về Phía Bình Minh documentary is about young Vietnamese people who have devoted their youth to protect the Spratly and Paracel islands. 

The 2018 Bains Publics was directed by Kita Bauchet and was shot exclusively within the confines of a pool and its surroundings, where sensations, impressions and situations show a seemingly egalitarian vision in appearance but will reveal itself to be much more complex.  

It won the Special Award at Clermont Ferrand and International French Film Festival in 2019. 

Other documentaries take up social issues such as how a family struggles with the challenge that one of their children has cerebral palsy or a discussion that has been worrying political decision-makers and the general public in Europe for years, the dwindling of privacy in the emerging age of digital capitalism. 

A documentary by Czech director Diana Cẩm Vân Nguyễn will be a highlight of the festival. 

The animation entitled The Little One is about a Vietnamese girl named Rồng growing up in a small European town. She struggles with the fact that she is different in the town and in the family.

It won Best Animated Short in 2017 at the Pilsen International Animation Film Festival and Best Animated Film at Feminist Border Arts Film Festival 2018 in New Mexico, US. 

Other award-winning films to be shown include the German Democracy; Italian Nimble Fingers; British The Secret World of Lego; Israeli Once Upon A Boy; French The Goddesses of Food; Swiss The Step Way Up; Spanish The Painting and Austrian Backstage Vienna State Opera.

Each night between October 1 and October 10 in Hà Nội and HCM City, audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy one Vietnamese documentary film followed by a European film.

Two films by independent Vietnamese directors Đoàn Hồng Lê and Nguyễn Hương Na will be shown at 5pm on October 3. The shows will have English subtitles.

The festival is held annually in June. But this year, it takes place in October due to COVID-19. — VNS