The selected works do not stop at recreating the smoke and fire of war, but bring insightful and unique perspectives on the price of peace.
Don't Burn" (2009) by director Dang Nhat Minh, adapted from the diary of martyr - doctor Dang Thuy Tram, does not abuse fierce battles but goes deep into the world of the pure, compassionate soul of a female military doctor in the Quang Ngai battlefield. The story of American soldier Frederic Whitehurst many years after the war determined to preserve and return the diary has helped the film escape traditional motifs, becoming a strong affirmation that compassion can win and heal wounds of hatred.
Also taking the theme of war, but "Burning Grass" (2011) by director Huu Muoi is a heroic epic about a generation of youth. The film is based on a true event at Quang Tri Citadel in 1972, following four Hanoi students from the lecture hall straight to the front. Then, overwhelming all the ruins and desolation of war, what crystallizes in the audience's minds are the pages of diaries, the lines of letters and a generation who fell when they just reached the age of twenty.
From another perspective, "Those Who Write Legends" (2013) by director Bui Tuan Dung takes viewers to a silent but extremely fierce front: the journey of building a gasoline and oil pipeline across Truong Son. This is a logistics miracle of vital importance to the resistance situation. The engineering soldiers and gasoline and oil soldiers in the film, even though they are on the rear lines, every meter of pipeline they complete must be exchanged for sweat, blood and even lives under the rain of bombs.
Meanwhile, "The Legend of Quan Tien" (2019) by director Dinh Tuan Vu, chooses a separate path. The film revolves around three female volunteers living in a separate cave in the deep Truong Son forest. There, extreme loneliness, longing and the desire for love, living normally of a girl becomes a cruel challenge no less than bombs and bullets. This is one of the unique highlights of Vietnamese cinema when reflecting war from a female lens with layers of psychology full of hidden and delicate angles.
The two films "Red Dawn" (2021) by directors, People's Artist Thanh Van and Tran Chi Thanh, and "Road Through the Forest" (2014) by director Xuan Cuong continue to expand the scope of approaching historical topics. These works aim for young audiences with modern cinematic language, putting people into harsh challenges to emphasize the journey of survival and team spirit. If "Red Dawn" is a heroic song praising the brave Truong Son female drivers, then "Road Through the Forest" recreates the breathtaking forest crossing of a group of people who accidentally meet, and unanimously go through the historic Junction City raid in 1967 at the Tay Ninh battlefield to turn to the Southern Central Bureau.
It is worth mentioning that after many years of release, these films have never been old. Because what keeps the audience is not only the glory of victory, but the fate of people. They are students who have not yet received their diplomas, female volunteers who have never known a home, young doctors writing diaries amidst the sound of bombs, or soldiers silently placing gasoline pipes under thousands of tons of bombs. They are representatives of a generation that has dedicated their youth to exchange for the two words "peace" for posterity.
In an era where social networks cause information to be "quickly consumed" in just a few tens of seconds, cinema still affirms its unique value, forcing viewers to rest, observe and empathize. Two hours in theaters cannot fully recreate the fierceness of a decades-long war, but enough to help a young person understand the boundless sacrifices of the previous generation to exchange for the peaceful and free stature of the country today.
Perhaps, the greatest meaning of Film Week 27.7 lies not in the number of screenings, but in the fact that cinema once again fulfills its mission of being a sacred bridge between memory and present. When the lights in the cinema go out and the velvet curtain closes, the audience leaves not only carrying images of the past, but also carrying a painful question for today: How will we preserve and cherish the values that previous generations have sacrificed with blood and bones? That is why revolutionary war-themed films always need to be re-watched. Not to evoke pain, but to remind each person of the value of freedom and gratitude, the core values that have never been outdated on the nation's development journey.
