After a drawn out struggle to find a film distributor, the award-winningVietnamese movie "Nhung nguoi viet huyen thoai" (The Legend Makers)will come to cinemas beginning January 10.
"Themovie's official screenings in cinemas across the country is the outcomeof our best efforts. We have tried our best to introduce a qualitymovie to mass audiences," said the movie's director Bui Tuan Dung.
Despite winning the Golden Lotus Award for the Best Feature Film atthe National Film Festival in October, the movie, which praises heroicsoldiers who built petrol pipelines running from northern areas tosouthern battlefields during the war for national reunification, earlierfaced many difficulties when it came to distribution.
Most cinema theatres in big cities opt for US blockbusters and moviesproduced by foreign companies to lure in audiences and earn profits.Last year, 17 Vietnamese movies were shown in cinemas, compared to morethan 100 foreign films.
The director of The LegendMakers, Dung, also expressed his concern about the film distributionsystem at the movie's premiere. "The producers of my film did not finddistributors or had a plan for film distribution," he said.
It seems to be an exception for a war-themed movie to receive so many great accolades.
While the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper praised themovie as "worth the expectation", the The Thao&Van Hoa (Sports &Culture) daily ran a review headlined "The Legend Makers: Admirationfor a War-themed Movie".
Recognising the movie'sworth, the giant movie distributor BHD Co. Ltd has decided to becomeinvolved with the movie, a production of the Vietnam Feature FilmStudio.
"By distributing the movie, we expect towiden the young people's contemporary view of the war. We offer thisspiritual gift for the movie's producers and the crew, hoping it willencourage them to create more quality movies in the future," arepresentative of the BHD said.
"To support themovie means supporting the Vietnamese cinema, and we will try our bestto introduce the movie to the audiences."
Not havingany luck finding a distributor, the award-winning movie "Lac loi"(Lost) by veteran woman director Pham Nhue Giang has struggled to find away to reach the audiences.
Sponsored mostly byinternational cinema development funds, including the France's FondFrancophonie and the Swiss Vision Sud Est, the independent moviereceived the silver award at the 2013 Golden Kite Awards, which arereferred to as "Vietnamese Oscars".
The movie isabout a love story triangle involving a rustic husband-and-wife villagecouple which makes their living by doing simple jobs in the city, andthe wife's lover, a dancer living in the city. Through the complicatedrelationship among these three people, the movie unveils the reality ofmodern society with many upside-down moral values. It also presents theconflicts between tradition and innovation, animosity and altruism.
"As the budget received from the sponsors was not enough, I also hadto spend all my savings for the movie. However, to be able to bring themovie to the audiences, we need another budget of 250 million VND (about12,000 USD) for distribution. It is a very special offer from theGalaxy Cinema," director Giang said.
According toher, the distribution cost comes to around one-third of the movie'stotal capital. In Viet Nam, the average distribution cost for acommercial film is about 1 billion VND (nearly 47,000 USD).
"It's a cause for a big disappointment for every movie producer anddirector if we couldn't introduce our ‘offspring' to the public. It isnot only a shameful waste of our labour, but will also result inpreventing the spread of many meaningful messages that we presentedthrough our movies," Giang added.
While stillsearching for another sponsor, director Giang hopes she and hercolleagues will get support from the Vietnamese cinema authorities inreleasing their products.
"If this situation happenswith every producer and director, who will dare take a risk and producean art film? What will we have to show at our biennial VietnamInternational Film Festival (ViFF)? It will be ridiculous if the ViFFwas to become a playground for foreign movies only," she said.-VNA
"Themovie's official screenings in cinemas across the country is the outcomeof our best efforts. We have tried our best to introduce a qualitymovie to mass audiences," said the movie's director Bui Tuan Dung.
Despite winning the Golden Lotus Award for the Best Feature Film atthe National Film Festival in October, the movie, which praises heroicsoldiers who built petrol pipelines running from northern areas tosouthern battlefields during the war for national reunification, earlierfaced many difficulties when it came to distribution.
Most cinema theatres in big cities opt for US blockbusters and moviesproduced by foreign companies to lure in audiences and earn profits.Last year, 17 Vietnamese movies were shown in cinemas, compared to morethan 100 foreign films.
The director of The LegendMakers, Dung, also expressed his concern about the film distributionsystem at the movie's premiere. "The producers of my film did not finddistributors or had a plan for film distribution," he said.
It seems to be an exception for a war-themed movie to receive so many great accolades.
While the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper praised themovie as "worth the expectation", the The Thao&Van Hoa (Sports &Culture) daily ran a review headlined "The Legend Makers: Admirationfor a War-themed Movie".
Recognising the movie'sworth, the giant movie distributor BHD Co. Ltd has decided to becomeinvolved with the movie, a production of the Vietnam Feature FilmStudio.
"By distributing the movie, we expect towiden the young people's contemporary view of the war. We offer thisspiritual gift for the movie's producers and the crew, hoping it willencourage them to create more quality movies in the future," arepresentative of the BHD said.
"To support themovie means supporting the Vietnamese cinema, and we will try our bestto introduce the movie to the audiences."
Not havingany luck finding a distributor, the award-winning movie "Lac loi"(Lost) by veteran woman director Pham Nhue Giang has struggled to find away to reach the audiences.
Sponsored mostly byinternational cinema development funds, including the France's FondFrancophonie and the Swiss Vision Sud Est, the independent moviereceived the silver award at the 2013 Golden Kite Awards, which arereferred to as "Vietnamese Oscars".
The movie isabout a love story triangle involving a rustic husband-and-wife villagecouple which makes their living by doing simple jobs in the city, andthe wife's lover, a dancer living in the city. Through the complicatedrelationship among these three people, the movie unveils the reality ofmodern society with many upside-down moral values. It also presents theconflicts between tradition and innovation, animosity and altruism.
"As the budget received from the sponsors was not enough, I also hadto spend all my savings for the movie. However, to be able to bring themovie to the audiences, we need another budget of 250 million VND (about12,000 USD) for distribution. It is a very special offer from theGalaxy Cinema," director Giang said.
According toher, the distribution cost comes to around one-third of the movie'stotal capital. In Viet Nam, the average distribution cost for acommercial film is about 1 billion VND (nearly 47,000 USD).
"It's a cause for a big disappointment for every movie producer anddirector if we couldn't introduce our ‘offspring' to the public. It isnot only a shameful waste of our labour, but will also result inpreventing the spread of many meaningful messages that we presentedthrough our movies," Giang added.
While stillsearching for another sponsor, director Giang hopes she and hercolleagues will get support from the Vietnamese cinema authorities inreleasing their products.
"If this situation happenswith every producer and director, who will dare take a risk and producean art film? What will we have to show at our biennial VietnamInternational Film Festival (ViFF)? It will be ridiculous if the ViFFwas to become a playground for foreign movies only," she said.-VNA
