A living epic

(Baonghean) - Reviewing films about the struggle for national reunification in the early period of the resistance war against the US to save the country such as: "Chung mot dong song", "Chi Tu Hau", "Nguoi doi bo" then the film "Vy tuyen 17 ngay va dem" by director Hai Ninh (Vietnam Feature Film Studio) left the most impression. There are historical events that took place over a long period from 1954 - 1968, when the US "local" war was defeated in South Vietnam.

Movie poster "17th Parallel Day and Night"

After parting with her husband who had gathered in the North with the belief that after 2 years of negotiations, she would return to reunite with her family in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Agreement - 1954 signed. Ms. Diu stayed on the southern bank of the Ben Hai River to continue her revolutionary activities. The puppet officer Tran Sung returned to the village with the aim of completely destroying the communists of Lang Cat, in order to carry out the plot to permanently divide the country. Uncle Ca Thuan - the party cell secretary was arrested and killed by the enemy. Ms. Diu replaced him as secretary, continuing to lead the struggle movement of the people in the border area. Diu became the center of attention, the "dangerous" target of the villain Tran Sung (also from Lang Cat). She had to go to prison many times, was tortured but was still steadfast and indomitable, building up her forces to develop day by day.

The film was released in 1972. To create a typical character of the people's war in the early years of fighting the Americans, screenwriter Hoang Tich Chi and director Hai Ninh spent nearly 5 years going back and forth to the temporary border area of ​​Vinh Linh to meet witnesses, cadres and guerrillas operating from the southern bank of the Ben Hai River to exploit documents. Collecting real stories and vivid details to build a script rich in epic qualities. The character Diu (played by Tra Giang) in the film is the image of a woman whose real name is Dieu in Cat village, Gio Linh, Quang Tri, whose husband went to the regroupment. In public, she is like an ordinary farmer, honest and doing business. However, she is the party cell secretary, the soul of the uprisings fighting against the repression, oppression, and revenge against the revolutionaries and the families of cadres who went to the North. For more than 10 years, Ms. Dieu was tortured and imprisoned by the Americans and puppets, but they could not defeat that steadfast and indomitable Southern girl.

And deep in the long sleepless nights, there was the love and longing she had for her husband on the other side of the river, along with the pain of her homeland and country being divided, especially with the fetus growing inside her... In order to deepen this pain, the enemy organized psychological warfare campaigns of "studying against communism" to force and entice wives whose husbands had been regrouped to divorce and remarry, with the sinister plot to separate the people from the revolution, lower the prestige of cadres, defame the qualities of the wives and eventually disintegrate the bases of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. To deal with the enemy, at one point, Ms. Dieu had to fake a marriage with a deaf-mute man so that they could not exploit anything, but was eventually discovered by the enemy and she continued to be arrested, brutally tortured, and dragged from one prison to another.

Ms. Dieu is the image of a resilient, indomitable Vietnamese woman in the American-puppet prison. But as for her public life leading the armed struggle movement of the people on the border, the filmmakers must continue to penetrate through the lives of many other witnesses: That is the image of Ms. Thao - Commander of the Gio Linh guerrilla team, Secretary of the Gio Ha Party Cell. So the real life of Ms. Dieu, Ms. Thao and many other women are models to help the author create the image of the character Ms. Diu in the film "17th Parallel Days and Nights" - a magnificent epic film, leaving a deep impression on the Vietnamese revolutionary cinema. At the 1973 Moscow International Film Festival, the film was awarded the grand prize of the World Peace Council, and actress Tra Giang playing Diu was awarded the Gold prize. The Soviet press at that time commented: “It can be said that never before on the Vietnamese screen has the image of a woman in war been portrayed with such strength and talent. The image of a gentle, surprisingly lovely woman as a mother, wife, soldier, communist soldier, Tra Giang played that role wonderfully, with all her heart!”.

It is known that the late General Secretary Le Duan (a native of Quang Tri), along with the delegation of our Party and State visiting the Soviet Union, watched this film right at the Moscow International Film Festival. After watching, he praised: “The film you made very carefully touched me. Whatever it is, if you do it carefully, it will always bring good results…”, then he hugged and kissed actress Tra Giang affectionately and said with emotion: “You acted very well!”.

Le Lan

47, Dang Thuc Hua, Vinh