The movie 'Southern Forest Land' is controversial about historical issues, what does the Cinema Department say?

The film Southern Forest Land is one of the Vietnamese cinema works that has received the attention of the public. As soon as it was screened, the film received many mixed opinions because of some details related to history.

Responding to this issue, Director of the Department of Cinema Vi Kien Thanh said that, following the direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism , the Appraisal Council... has re-appraised the film Southern Forest Land.

Afterwards, the Department also invited the producer and crew of the film Southern Forest Land to dialogue and discuss some content related to the film.

A scene from the movie "Southern Forest Land".

Director of the Department of Cinema Vi Kien Thanh said that the film Southern Forest Land is considered a carefully crafted film, with the main tone of patriotism and anti-feudalism and imperialism in the Southern region.

The film is inspired by the novel of the same name by writer Doan Gioi and the famous TV series Dat Phuong Nam , produced in 1997 by director Nguyen Vinh Son. Director Vinh Son is also a consultant for this film.

The film has similar editing to the TV series Dat Phuong Nam , taking place in the 1920s and 1930s, while the novel Dat Rung Phuong Nam by writer Doan Gioi is set in 1945. The reason for the change is because the film wants to describe in this first part that little An wanders through many places, many environments, many gangs as well as many different rebel groups.

Mr. Vi Kien Thanh commented that this is a feature film, with fictional characters and the exact time of the story is not determined. Historical elements and characters in the novel are the inspiration to build the film's story.

"The film does not glorify or praise any group, it only praises the patriotism against foreign invaders of the people of the South during that period, including the Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer... ", Director Vi Kien Thanh stated.

In the film, there are activities and dialogues mentioning "Boxer Society" and "Heaven and Earth Society", which are groups gathered by a number of working people living mainly in Soc Trang , Bac Lieu, and Long Xuyen - completely unrelated to the movement of the same name led by Chu Hong Dang in China.

"Thien Dia Hoi" as well as "Nghia Hoa Doan" were only borrowed names by patriotic people in Cochinchina at that time to operate independently in Vietnam.

During the meeting and dialogue, the producer's representative proactively proposed a plan to edit the film. Accordingly, the producer will remove the names and dialogues of "Thien Dia Hoi" and "Nghia Hoa Doan", replacing them with other names unrelated to foreign groups. The dialogue in the film will change from "Nghia Hoa Doan" to "Nam Hoa Doan" and "Thien Dia Hoi" to "Chinh Nghia Hoi".

The producer and film crew will edit and avoid incorrect associations that affect the film's content before the film's official release on October 20.

In addition, adjust the line " The film is inspired by the novel "Southern Forest Land" by writer Doan Gioi" at the beginning of the film to clarify the change in timeline in the literary work, following more closely the TV series version.

“The producer and film crew will urgently edit this content to avoid incorrect associations that could affect the film’s content. After editing, it will be submitted to the Cinema Department before its official release on October 20,” said Director Vi Kien Thanh.

Le Chi

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