”War Requiem” – UK Film in European Film Festival 2015

Hanoi: Thu 21 May 2015, 8 pm
Sat 23 May 2015, 10 am
National Cinema Center
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Danang: Mon 25 May 2015, 7.30 pm
Le Do Cinema
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HCMC: Wed 27 May 2015, 6 pm
Thu 28 May 2015, 8 pm
Cinebox 212

From Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam and British Council:

You are invited to the screening of UK film “War Requiem” in the European Film Festival 2015

Director, Writer: Derek Jarman
Music: Benjamin Britten
Cast: Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Sean Bean, Laurence Olivier
Genre: Drama, War
Year of Production: 1989
Duration: 92’

This film is not for viewers under 16 years old

The film’s dialogue-free collage of images emphasise the atrocities of war, and include through WWI newsreel footage, images of the Cambodian conflict and the bombing of Hiroshima. Benjamin Britten composed his ‘War Requiem’ for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1963, after the original was destroyed in the Second World War in 1940, and Jarman’s film grew out of his traumatic memory of a military hospital, where as a child he spent a few days, alongside damaged victims of WWII. The film moves between past and present, its narrative unfolding through the eyes of the Old Soldier. The film’s narrative is complex,with spatial and temporal jumps and flashbacks-within-flashbacks, and the actors’ performances are more symbolic than naturalistic.

The War Requiem was not meant to be a pro-British piece or a glorification of British soldiers, but a public statement of Britten’s anti-war convictions. It was a denunciation of the wickedness of war, not of other men. The fact that Britten wrote the piece for three specific soloists – a German baritone(Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau), a Russian soprano (Galina Vishnevskaya), and a British tenor (Peter Pears) – demonstrated that he had more than the losses of his own country in mind, and symbolized the importance of reconciliation.The piece was also meant to be a warning to future generations of the senselessness of taking up arms against fellow men.

Free of charge tickets can be collected from 12 May 2015 for screenings at the following locations:

Hanoi:
Goethe Institut, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc, tel: (04) 37 34 22 51, from 12 pm
British Council, 20 Thụy Khuê, tel: (04) 3 8 436 780, from 9.30 am
National Cinema Centre, 87 Lang Ha, tel: (04) 3 514 2856 (free tickets are distributed from 3 pm to 6 pm everyday from Wednesday 13 May 2015

HCMC:
Goethe Institut: 335/4 Dien Bien Phu, District 1, tel: (08) 3 9 12 52 50
British Council: 25 Le Duan, D.1, tel: (08) 3 8 23 28 62, from 9.30 am
Cinebox: 212 Ly Chinh Thang, D.3, tel: 08 3935 0610

Da Nang:
Le Do Cinema, 46 Tran Phu, tel: (0511) 3 82 25 74
Cinema & Film Distribution Centre, 68 Tran Phu, tel: (0511) 3 82 32 84

Full information on the film festival can be found at: http://25yearseuvietnam.vn/film
For photos of the films please visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eudelvietnam/