National Day film season at Rạp Thống Nhất

   Five evenings in a row, at 20:00 sharp, the Thống Nhất cinema runs a schedule unlike its usual box office: no blockbusters, no late shows, but eleven Vietnamese films about history, heritage and places that rarely reach a screen. If you are in Hai Phong over the holiday, this is a chance to see Vietnamese cinema you would struggle to find otherwise.

   The season is put on by the city's Culture, Cinema and Exhibition Centre to mark 81 years since the August Revolution and National Day. Its centrepiece is the documentary «Người viết Quốc ca» («The man who wrote the anthem») by Đặng Linh, produced by the Central Documentary and Scientific Film Studio and running 115 minutes. It follows the life and work of Văn Cao, who composed «Tiến quân ca», Vietnam's national anthem — and who was born in Hai Phong.

   The full line-up:

• — documentaries: «Tiếng chiêng xa», «Trường lưu một miền di sản», «Cuộc chiến trên đường phố», «Người viết Quốc ca», «Lối xưa xe ngựa hồn thu thảo»
• — animation: «Người bạn đồng hành», «Cây cầu của chúng ta», «Ảo ảnh», «Sắc màu của núi», «Cuộc hồi hương kỳ diệu»
• — feature film: «Ký ức điệu Nam Xuân»

   Alongside the cinema, the city's mobile projection teams keep taking the same programme out to communes and islands — a Vietnamese practice going back decades, when a screen would be rigged up in a village yard. In early August 2026 the centre ran exactly such a season on the Bạch Long Vĩ special zone.

   The season suits families: five of the eleven titles are animation, while the documentaries are for anyone drawn to history and heritage. All films are shown in Vietnamese; the organisers have said nothing about subtitles, but the animated half tells its stories in pictures and follows easily without them.

   One note on admission: entry terms for the Hai Phong screenings have not been announced. In Hanoi the same national season is shown free at the National Cinema Centre, with up to four tickets per person handed out at the desk — but that is a separate arrangement, so ask the Thống Nhất box office before you go.

   Watching «Người viết Quốc ca» in the city where Văn Cao was born, in the week of National Day, is the kind of coincidence that comes round once a year.