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.