The Dien Bien cart in the cartoon | Art

VHO – Sending meaningful messages through two animated films “Dien Bien cart” and “Dien Bien promise”, screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha (Head of Script Department, Vietnam Animation Studio) hopes We hope to inspire young audiences to love and learn more about a heroic period in the nation’s history, about the great victory that “spanned five continents and shook the earth”.

Sharing about her inspiration when penning the script for the two animated films “The Dien Bien Cart” and “Dien Bien Promise”, screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha confided that until now she still cannot forget those feelings. choked up after watching 3 episodes of the documentary “A1, mud, blood and flowers”.

“I am especially impressed and impressed by the stories and feats that my ancestors recorded during the long resistance war. The story is that the brothers raised rice for the soldiers, each person had a portion, but after each battle, that rice ball was left over, because many people left and never returned.

The image of the army with carts, the decisive battle with a bomb of nearly a thousand pounds under hill A1… It all came back again and again and motivated me, giving me the inspiration to retell it in cartoon language, to confront The audience is children who can feel and mark that emotion,” screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha confided.

Having cherished and been assigned the task of finding a script about Dien Bien Phu for a long time, the female screenwriter said that writing an animation script on a modern historical topic is difficult.

“I once ordered writers for feature films, documentaries, theater… but did not receive any suitable scripts. Animation is a high-flying genre, with many elements of imagination, fiction, symbolic conventions, etc., while data mining is real historical events, so it is not easy to be imaginative, much less usable. the “magic” typical of animation”, Ms. Ha shared.

But if made too “realistic”, cartoons become historical illustrations, very dry and unattractive. The biggest challenge is to tell the story in a way that respects history and brings out the spirit of history but must have the charm and appeal typical of animated films.

Sharing about two animated films that are curious and attractive right from the name: “Dien Bien cart” and “Dien Bien promise”, the female screenwriter said that the two films have two different ways of exploitation. . Both are written by screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha, editor Nguyen Thu Trang, and director – artist Bui Manh Quang. The films are made in the paper cut genre.

“When the Vietnam Animation Studio planned to produce films on the theme of the Dien Bien victory, the studio’s screenwriters immediately began researching sources to choose the story. It took quite a long time. I just finished the script “Dien Bien Promise” about the meeting between a boy and a veteran who revisits the Dien Bien battlefield…”, she said.

The script “The Dien Bien cart” was deployed nearly a year later. Because he had accumulated enough materials and found a way to express himself suitable for animation, “The Dien Bien cart” was completed quite quickly. Both scripts were written by female screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha with the companion of editor Nguyen Thu Trang.

“The Dien Bien cart” has a duration of 10 minutes and is more of a narrative, telling about the journey of a boy and his cart in the Dien Bien Phu Victory Museum. Taking the cart to visit the old battlefield, the boy witnessed the whole scene of the Dien Bien Phu campaign with extraordinary things, the miracles our army and people created in the earth-shaking victory.

With the same duration of 10 minutes, “Dien Bien Promise” delves deeply into emotions. The film is about the meeting between a boy and an old man on the battlefield of Dien Bien Phu in the past. The old man was the one who participated in memorable battles in the Dien Bien Phu campaign.

That day, before going into battle, the soldiers promised each other that they would win in the future, and every time the flowers bloomed, they would return to visit the old battlefield. However, there are fallen soldiers who remain in that land forever. Their comrades still return every year to remember the fallen.

Time passes, 70 years have passed, the people who have walked out of the war are also aging and disappearing over the years, and they cannot return to the old battlefield as promised to their comrades.

And during that meeting, the boy and the old man promised each other that they would meet again. The story continues until a year later, the boy returned to Dien Bien but could no longer see his grandfather. But even though he passed away, he and his friends still fulfilled their promise to return to Dien Bien Phu, continuing the patriotic historical tradition spanning generations from the past to the present and into the future…

“Finding a way to tell history through animation is probably the thing that gives me the most satisfaction. The war has receded, I chose to tell the story naturally and gracefully, so that young audiences can imagine what our ancestors went through, be proud of it, so that each film has its own notes. Deep and tragic, but also has beauty and revolutionary romance…”, the female screenwriter said.

Emphasizing the role of cartoons in educating history for the young generation, according to screenwriter Pham Thanh Ha, cartoons are a great means to educate and convey historical lessons to children. gently but deeply. Through storytelling and images, it can attract children’s attention and stimulate their imagination.

In the movie “Dien Bien Promise”, the screenwriter uses many symbolic images. For example, the image of ban flower petals used to be pure white, but in the land of the Dien Bien battlefield, ban flower petals turned pink as if soaked in his father’s blood.

Or the image of the foster brother’s rice ball evokes feelings of camaraderie, loss, and sacrifice. These images are not meant to be big words, but gently permeate the children, allowing them to understand a time.

“During the process of working on the two films, the deeper I delved into and understood more about history, about the war, and about my father’s generation, the more I wished to do well to spread the values ​​and feelings. emotions that history brings.

With two films, I hope to create a bridge and inspire children to love learning about a heroic period of our nation’s history. Thereby, evoking emotions, allowing children to feel and be self-aware while fostering patriotism and love of history…”, the female screenwriter confided.

“The Dien Bien cart” was premiered on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory. “Dien Bien Promise” is in production, expected to be released in November this year.