VietNamNet Bridge – A line-up of films by European directors will be shown in the three biggest cities of Viet Nam.

Shroom for manoeuvre: A scene of the Swedish movie Eat Sleep Die by director Gabriela Pichler, which will open the European Film Festival 2013.

The cinematic event, Europe on Screen, is one of the Europe Day 2013 events hosted by the EU Delegation to Viet Nam in collaboration with embassies of EU member states and the European Cultural Institute.

"The silver screen world has no borders. No passports or visas are required to take you from one country to another. As the birthplace of cinematography and home to a number of prestigious international film festivals, Europe is renowned for its cinema heritage. This year again we are proud to introduce this fireworks of European cultural diversity and creativity to Vietnamese audiences. The films showcased in this festival may belong to a specific country, but together they are representative of Europe's common cultural heritage," said Franz Jessen, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Viet Nam.

This year 16 films from 14 different EU member states will be shown. Genres vary from children's animation, drama and romance to comedy and documentary.

The event will open in Ha Noi on Thursday with the Swedish movie Eat Sleep Die by director Gabriela Pichler.

With a cast of all-amateur actors who have never acted before, the 2012 drama offers a glimpse into the life of immigrants to Sweden, who have to deal with many challenges to integrate into the new society. The movie swept the Guldbagge Awards – the Swedish equivalent of the Oscars – winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

The screening in Ha Noi will be enriched by the presence of the film's producer China Ahlander.

During the film festival, Sweden will also introduce a documentary about the life of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated in 1986 while he was on the way home from a movie theatre in Stockholm.

The latest film version of Wuthering Heights, based on the classic novel by Emily Bronte, will also be shown. The 2011 movie won Best Cinematography at the 2011 Venice Film Festival where it had its world premiere. The 128-minute production went on to be an official selection of the 2011 Toronto Int'l Film Festival and the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Audiences can journey to Ireland through Dreamtime Revisited, a new film by Donal O Ceilleachair and Julius Ziz inspired by the work of the late Irish writer, poet and philosopher John Moriarty.

Dreamtime Revisited weaves together contemporary and archival material, with excerpts from some of Moriarty's key talks, in a labyrinthine invocation of what he called his "dream-vision" of Ireland, exploring the spiritual and poetic dimensions of its landscape and people.

Romania will introduce the 1967 movie The Dacians, a Romanian-French co-production filmed in Romania. The sword-and-sandal genre movie was the first Romanian hit movie in Western Europe, telling the story of how the Dacians confronted and resisted the Roman Empire at around AD100.

Even the Rain is a Spanish drama about a Mexican director and his executive producer who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus's conquest. The duo unexpectedly land themselves in a moral crisis when they and their crew arrive in the country during the intensifying 2000 Cochabamba protests, which their key native actor persistently leads. The film was nominated for the 2011 Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film.

Children will be delighted with two animations – Fimfarum of the Czech Republic and Le Tableau of France. While the Fimfarum received the Czech Lion award for the Best Visual Solution in 2002, the Le Tableau was a nominee for the 2012 Cesar Awards' Best Animation.

Other movies to be shown include Austria's Crossing Boundaries, Poland's My Father's Bike, Slovakia's The Cherry Boy, Romania's Uncle Marin, the Billionaire, Hungary's Glass Tiger 3, Germany's Vincent Wants to Sea, Finland's Le Havre and La Fee/The Fairy of Wallonie-Bruxelles.

The Europe on Screen film festival will take place in Ha Noi from May 16-26, at National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha Street; in Da Nang from May 17-26 at Le Do Cinema, 46 Tran Phu Street; and in HCM City from May 15-25 at the Cinebox, 212 Ly Chinh Thang Street, District 3. All films are subtitled in Vietnamese.

Held for the first time in 2000, the European Film Festival has been recognised as one of the most successful multi-cultural events in Viet Nam. It has become an established and credible avenue to bring new and captivating aspects of European culture to Vietnamese people by showcasing films that would otherwise not be shown in Vietnamese commercial cinemas.

Source: VNS