People's Artist Bach Diep, one of Viet Nam's first female directors of Revolutionary Cinema, died of cancer on Saturday. – File Photo

HA NOI (VNS)– People's Artist Bach Diep, one of Viet Nam's first female film directors of Revolutionary Cinema, died of cancer on Saturday. She was 84 years old.

Born as Nguyen Thanh Tam into a family with a few members working in photography, she started her first training course under Russian photographers in Ha Noi in 1963. She then became the first female director at the Viet Nam Feature Film Studio.

Her first brain-child, Tran Quoc Toan Ra Quan (Tran Quoc Toan in Battle) saw her awarded the Silver Lotus prize at the second Viet Nam Film Festival in 1973.

Ngay Le Thanh (Holy Days) and Huyen Thoai Me (Legend on Mothers) were her most memorable films, both of which won her Silver Lotus prizes at succeeding film festivals as well as a State Prize in Literature and the Arts in 2007.

In 1992, after retiring, she produced several television films for Viet Nam Television.

She was also known as the only wife of noted poet Xuan Dieu. They got married in 1956 but were divorced a few months later. – VNS