The 7th Vietnamese-European Documentary Film Festival will open with the screening of “Sound of Heimat” from Germany and “Lasting with the time” of Vietnam, announced the Vietnam Central Scientific and Documentary Film Studio on June 9.

“Lasting with the time” by director Le Hong Chuong deals with the fate of Vietnamese soldiers who fought in South Vietnam during the war and died there, leaving only their letters and diaries behind. Based on these documents, the film traces the soldiers’ lives and their wishes.

The film won the best documentary award at the 51st Asia-Pacific Film Festival in 2006.

Meanwhile, the award-winning music documentary “Sound of Heimat” by German director Arne Birkenstock describes the turbulent journey of the New Zealand saxophonist Hayden Chisholm through the German music landscape.

In the film, Chisholm is on a discovery mission all over Germany and meets old and young, traditional and modern folk musicians.

The film festival, co-organised by the Network of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and the Vietnam Central Scientific and Documentary Film Studio, will screen 10 Vietnamese documentaries.

Eight European countries - Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland - and Israel also attend the festival.

Audiences will have a chance to enjoy one Vietnamese and one European documentary film each evening.

The films will be screened free of charge in Hanoi from June 10-19 and in Ho Chi Minh City from June 11-20.

VNA