The 27th FilmFestival Cottbus (7 to 12 November) dedicates its section FOCUS Việt Nam ở châu Âu | Vietnam in Europe to the migration history of Vietnamese contract workers and their succeeding generations in Central Europe.
“The story of former Vietnamese contract workers and their children and grandchildren in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic reflects several ambivalences of European migration history: they were invited as a workforce, remained as human beings, were threatened with deportation and confronted with racism”, outlines Programme Director Bernd Buder their lives in Germany. “The programme’s range of films poignantly and often ironically highlights aspects of migration history and explores various Vietnamese-European identities.”
15 films from Vietnam, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and the former GDR investigate the emotional state between xenophobic resentments, patriarchal family tradition and self-liberation, the fear of deportation and painstakingly won social acknowledgement in a personal and accentuated approach. The films are essayistic and documentary, touching, analytical and ironic and they offer genre appeal. The short film MEINE ERLEBNISSE/MY EXPERIENCES (GDR, 1962) is a historically fascinating homage, documenting the ideals of the immediate post-war periode.
Also part of the programme is the only co-production between the GDR and Vietnam: DSCHUNGELZEIT/TIME IN THE JUNGLE from 1988 was the first foreign feature film that was entirely shot in Vietnam. Director Jörg Foth is a guest at the 27th FFC and will talk about his experiences in shooting this film.
Director Đức Ngô Ngọc, who trained at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, follows the lives of the inhabitants of a floating village in Vietnam in his documentary film FAREWELL HALONG.
Two budding directors of Vietnamese origin studying at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague reflect on the younger generation’s dwindling links to their parents’ roots and on life between two homelands in the short film MAT GOC and the animated film MALÁ/THE LITTLE ONE.