Film on Dr Yersin debuts in Hanoi

A documentary film titled It Is Not a Life That Doesn't Move featuring late doctor Alexandre Yersin will make a debut in Hanoi on June 12.
A documentary film titled It Is Not a Life That Doesn't Move featuringlate doctor Alexandre Yersin will make a debut in Hanoi on June 12.

Thefilms world premiere will take place at the amphitheatre Nguyen VanDao, the Hanoi National University, and the following day the film willbe screened at the University of Natural Sciences of the NationalUniversity of Ho Chi Minh City.

The 90-minute film, reminding thescientific and social achievements of Dr Yersin (1862 – 1943), will bescreened in French with Vietnamese subtitle.

These screenings, inthe presence of the Swiss State Secretary of Education, Science andInnovation Mauro Dell'Ambrogio and many Swiss and Vietnamese scientists,are open to students of all the universities in order to stress theimportance of scientific research as a prerequisite to any country’ssuccess.

Before the screening, the students will have a chance tointeract with four eminent Vietnamese scientists – Prof Nguyen TranHien, Prof Le Gia Vinh, Prof Dau Ngoc Hao and Prof Nguyen Lan Dung – whohave excelled in the disciplines that were also Dr Yersins, namelybacteriology, general medicine, veterinary medicine and botanicalsciences.

The scientists will introduce the public to these scientific fields and their most fascinating and challenging aspects.

Directedby Stephan Kleeb, the film will be screened to mark the 120thanniversary of Dr Yersin’s discovery of the bacillus responsible for thebubonic plague.

In June 1894, the Swiss doctor who also became aFrench citizen but ultimately lived and died as a Vietnamese in hisheart discovered humanity’s greatest scourge ever. This discovery wasone of the greatest liberation of the human species in history.

Dr Yersin settled down in the coastal city of Nha Trang in 1891 and became director of Pasteur Institute in Nha Trang in 1895.

Dr Yersin was credited for finding the site for the town of Da Lat (300km northwest of Sai Gon) in 1893.

He also tried his hand at agriculture and was a pioneer in the cultivation of rubber trees in Vietnam.

The film was shot in Switzerland, France and many regions in Vietnam where Dr Yersin had spent his life.

Theidea of making the film came to Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam AndrejMotyl who has been an admirer of Dr Yersin's morality and talent for along time.

He stated that the film will help emphasise thefascinating human curiosity and inventiveness demonstrated by Yersin,which is lingering inside all of us, to awaken it up from inside us, toencourage young Vietnamese generation to learn and enjoy the subjects ofscientific discovery and innovation.

"The film is a metaphor of a'life well lived'. It is an inspiration for children, youngsters andtheir parents, to learn that hard work and perseverance bring thesweetest fruits," Ambassador Motyl stated, adding: "And no satisfactionis greater than to have made a great effort and to have – sometimesafter certain failures – achieved a goal."

The Swiss Embassyexpects that the films screenings will celebrate not only humancreativity and duty but also the joy of life.-VNA

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