'Cyclo' causes a stir in Vietnam

'Cyclo' causes a stir in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): Cyclo, a French-backed film based on the life of
a pedicab driver in Ho Chi Minh City, won plaudits and the top
award at the Venice Film Festival but police in the Vietnamese
city have given it the thumbs down.

"The movie covertly blackens Vietnamese society and its
content is very bad ideologically," said an article in the city's
police newspaper, Cong An Thang Pho Ho Chi Minh, a tabloid-style
publication that thrives on gruesome crime stories.

"Some scenes in the film as well as its ideological content
make a cold sweat run down your back," said the author of the
article, who admitted that he had not yet seen the movie.

The movie was directed by Tran Anh Hung, a Frenchman of
Vietnamese origin whose previous work The Scent of Green Papaya
won an Oscar nomination for best foreign film.

Cyclo tells the story of the descent into crime of a driver of
a pedicab whose vehicle is stolen and portrays the seamy
underside of the former Saigon, a world that would come as no
surprise to readers of the police newspaper.

Hung was quoted in the Thanh Nien newspaper as saying he had
wanted "to make a film that would confuse the audience and make
them feel exhausted watching it, to let them walk out of the
cinema as if they have been tortured. "

The police newspaper compared the movie to novels by
controversial authors Bao Ninh, Nguyen Huy Thiep and Duong Thu
Huong that have come under attack in the current hardline
political climate in Vietnam.

"These writers have not been around on the literary stage for
long and their books are not representative of Vietnamese
literature," the newspaper said. "They were published abroad
because of their political content, not because of their literary
merits."

"Cyclo" had been made for similar political reasons, the
newspaper said, adding that the film had been criticized even in
France for its violent content.

The film is expected to make its debut in Vietnam this month
but several foreign-made films, including the successful
documentary From Hollywood to Hanoi were well-received at
official screenings but have never been put on general release.

Cyclo has generally been praised by the Vietnamese press, who
compared the director to China's celebrated Zhang Yimou and
welcomed the Golden Lion award it won at the Venice festival.