A scene in the film Cong Binh, the Lost Fighters of Vietnam (Photo courtesy L’Espace) Hanoi (VNA) - A film about the forgotten history of 20,000 young Vietnamese who were forced to work in France on the eve of the second World War and under the German Occupation will be screened at the L’Espace.
Entitled Cong Binh, the Lost Fighters of Vietnam, the film is directed by Lam Le and cast by Vietnamese and French witnesses.
On the eve of World War II, 20,000 Vietnamese men in French Indochina were forced to labour in arms factories to replace French workers who had left for the front.
Mistaken for soldiers, blocked in France after the 1940 defeat, at the mercy of the German occupying forces and collaborationist bosses, these civil workers known as “cong binh” led a pariah’s life during the Occupation.
They were rice cultivation pioneers in the Camarque and unjustly thought of as traitors in Vietnam, although they all supported President Ho Chi Minh in the country’s independence in 1945.
The film will be screened on Jun 19 and 26. Tickets cost 50,000 VND and are available at the L’Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, Hanoi.-VNA
