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| A scene in the film Công Binh, the Lost Fighters of Việt Nam. Photo courtesy L’Espace. |
Viet Nam News
A film about the forgotten history of 20,000 young Vietnamese who were forced to work in France on the eve of the second World War and under the German Occupation will be screened at the L’Espace.
Entitled Công Binh, the Lost Fighters of Việt Nam, the film is directed by Lam Lê and cast by Vietnamese and French witnesses.
On the eve of World War II, 20,000 Vietnamese men in French Indochina were forced to labour in arms factories to replace French workers who had left for the front. Mistaken for soldiers, blocked in France after the 1940 defeat, at the mercy of the German occupying forces and collaborationist bosses, these civil workers known as “công binh” led a pariah’s life during the Occupation. They were rice cultivation pioneers in the Camarque and unjustly thought of as traitors in Việt Nam, although they all supported President Hồ Chí Minh in the country’s independence in 1945.
The film will be screened on Jun 19 and 26. Tickets cost VNĐ50,000 and are available at the L’Espace, 24 Tràng Tiền Street, Hà Nội. — VNS
OVietnam