The crowd made some very unreasonable demands.

Southern Forest Land was released in theaters on October 13 and is still a hot topic in the media and social networks in many aspects.

On the morning of October 19, social networks were abuzz with the news that Southern Forest Land was a work commissioned by the State, even though the film was previously announced to be a product of private companies.

On October 12, 2022, in the official dispatch sent by Hoan Khue Film Production Joint Stock Company (HK Film) to the People's Committee of Dong Thap province and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Dong Thap province to request permission to film Southern Forest Land, it stated: "Based on official dispatch No. 18676/QD-BVHTTDL of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism on approving the script of Southern Forest Land according to the plan to produce feature films ordered by the State".

On the afternoon of October 19, the Director of the Cinema Department confirmed to VietNamNet that Southern Forest Land is not a film ordered by the State. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also clearly informed that although the film's script was approved and the plan to produce a feature film ordered by the State in 2022 was registered, for some reasons it was not on the list of works using State-ordered funds.

Therefore, HK Film produced Southern Forest Land by itself from private funding.

Before the noise surrounding the film, VietNamNet contacted cinematographer Nguyen Trinh Hoan - Director of HK Film and Creative Director of Dat Rung Phuong Nam. Mr. Trinh Hoan affirmed that in the document, it was clearly stated that this was a socialized film and not ambiguous to gain more benefits.

The film's script was approved and production funding was not approved from the State budget, so why did the official dispatch HK Film sent to the People's Committee of Cao Lanh Dong Thap province last October mention the phrase "State order"?

In response to this question from VietNamNet, Mr. Trinh Hoan said: "In Article 1 of the decision of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the important point is mentioned, which is the approval of the script of Southern Forest Land. Therefore, I mentioned this point in the official dispatches sent to localities so that they can rest assured that the film has been approved by the State in terms of script. With the approved script, it will be easier to license the film. This is purely a procedural matter."

Although the Ministry of Culture approved the script and registered the plan to produce a feature film ordered by the State in 2022, in the end, 'Southern Forest Land' was not approved for funding. Do you regret this?

Mr. Trinh Hoan replied: "I knew that when I made the film budget, it would be higher than the State's investment level. After researching, I knew it would be very difficult to get approval for such a high level, so I decided to produce the film in the form of socialization."

When asked if the negative comments about Southern Forest Land affected other producers in their plans to make a sequel, cinematographer Trinh Hoan said he once thought it would be okay if there were comments about the film, but then he realized people were paying more attention than necessary.

"This will be very difficult for films related to historical themes. Therefore, we also have to consider whether to continue with part 2 or not. With the way people are questioning a feature film like this, it will be very difficult for artists to be creative.

Right now we are having a headache solving the problems we are facing because when we start creating we have to think about how to satisfy the crowd, which is very mixed and makes very unreasonable demands.

Filmmaker Trinh Hoan said that although he has planned to produce a sequel to Dat Rung Phuong Nam , there is currently nothing concrete. Even if the film achieves high revenue, there is still no certainty about the fate of Dat Rung Phuong Nam part 2.

(Source: Vietnamnet)

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