Movie on Ho Chi Minh's exile to hit Vietnam
Movie on Ho Chi Minh's exile to hit Vietnam
Ben Rowse, Hanoi, Agence France-Presse
A feature-length film on the revolutionary activities in Hong Kong of Ho Chi Minh, the revered founding father of the Vietnamese Communist Party, will hit theaters across the country next month.
The 90-minute movie tracks his life in the early 1930s, during which he was jailed in Hong Kong after the British were persuaded by French colonial authorities in Vietnam to arrest him for his pro-independence activities.
Shooting commenced on Nguyen Ai Quoc in Hong Kong in November last year at a cost of 15 billion dong (US$975,000) -- a huge budget for a Vietnamese movie. Its release date is Sept. 1, the day before Vietnam's national day.
The name of the film refers to one of a series of pseudonyms adopted by Ho Chi Minh during his lifetime, and means Nguyen The Patriot.
The film was produced by the state-run Film Studio Company and China's Zhoujiang studio, which contributed five billion dong to the budget.
It was shot on location in Vietnam, Hong Kong and China, an official at the Vietnamese studio said Thursday.
Vietnamese movie star Tran Luc plays Ho Chi Minh.
The film's screening marks the start of an ideological campaign studying Ho Chi Minh's thoughts and their continuing relevance, according to the Vietnam News Agency.
Ho Chi Minh remains an untouchable figure in the communist nation, with busts of the whiskered man adorning every government office. Grainy black and white images of him are regularly incorporated into Vietnamese music videos.
Tales of his past -- particularly those involving his love life -- that are not part of his officially sanctioned biography are fiercely rejected by the authorities.
But while his influence on elder generations is undeniable, younger generations today are more eager to embrace Western culture and the market economy than hark back to the country's revolutionary past.
Moreover, many Vietnamese say they have had to digest more than their fair share of staid Communist Party propaganda and prefer films tackling everyday issues, as demonstrated by the success of Bar Girls, the box office smash released earlier this year which told the tale of two prostitutes.
Born in 1890 in Nghe An, Nguyen Tat Thanh -- subsequently nicknamed Ho Chi Minh or "Bringer of light" -- traveled to Europe in his early 20s where he became involved with the French Communist Party.
He was summoned to Moscow for training and, in late 1924, he was sent to southern China, where he organized a revolutionary movement among Vietnamese exiles.
While in Hong Kong in 1930 he founded the Vietnamese Communist Party, prompting his arrest in June 1931.
After another spell in the Soviet Union following his release from jail in January 1933 he returned to Vietnam in 1941 after a 30-year absence to fight Japanese occupation and secure independence from France.
But despite overseeing the French rout at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, he was denied ultimate victory, as the Geneva Accords of the same year resulted in the partitioning of the country and the subsequent "American War".
Ho Chi Minh died of a heart attack on September 2, 1969, six years before North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon on April 30, 1975, which was later renamed in his honor. His embalmed body lies in state at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi.