Cyclo - A Vietnamese Film By Tran Anh Hung: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR CYCLO - A VIETNAMESE...

The Hyderabad Film Club is organising a film festival of Vietnamese films, on 19th and 20th September, at the Sarathi Studios in Ameerpet. The 2-day festival called Cinema Of Vietnam will feature two films by Tran Anh Hung.

Today, the opening day, Xich Lo (Cyclo) will be screened. The film stars Le Van Loc, Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Tran Nu Yen-Khe. Le Van Loc plays a young cyclo driver who is forced into working for a gang after his cycle is stolen. Soon, his sister also comes under the influence of the gang and becomes a prostitute.

A lieutenant in the gang with demons of his own wrestles with growing feelings for the sister even as he continues to prostitute her out to other men. The brother and sister sink to depths they had never imagined and must claw their way back out again. The film won a Golden Lion award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.

The cinema of Vietnam has a history that goes back to the 1920s and has largely been shaped by wars that have been fought in the country from the 1940s to the 1970s. Better known Vietnamese language films include Cyclo, Scent Of The Green Papaya and Vertical Ray Of The Sun, all by French-trained Viet Kieu director Tran Anh Hung.

But in recent years, as Vietnam's film industry has made efforts to modernize and move beyond the government-backed propaganda films, contemporary Vietnamese filmmakers have gained a wider audience with films such as Buffalo Boy and Bar Girls.

For instance, Tran Van Thuy's Tieng Vi Cam O My Lai (The Sound of the Violin at My Lai) won Best Short Film prize at the 43rd Asia Pacific Film Festival in 1999. Doi Cat (Sandy Life) by Nguyen Thanh won best picture at the same festival the following year. Better known, however, are European productions in Vietnam, such as The Lover and Indochine, as well as films by Viet Kieu directors Tran Anh Hung and Tony Bui.

Please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243 for further details.