A film festival in Vietnam is marking more than 20 years of diplomatic relations with Israel.
The festival organized by Israel’s embassy opened Nov. 1 at the National Cinema Center in Hanoi and was to move on Nov. 6 to a cineplex in Ho Chi Minh City, the embassy announced on its Facebook page.
Israeli Ambassador Meirav Eilon-Shahar said the festival was bringing to Vietnamese audiences the films “Foreign Letters,” “Broken Wings,” “The Matchmaker,” “Someone to Run With” and “Something Sweet.”
The movies are meant to connect the two nations’ citizens and boost understanding of Israel, the news site vietnamnet.vn quoted Eilon-Shahar as saying.
Among other activities marking the two countries’ relations was a scheduled Nov. 7 launch at Hanoi’s General Science Library of a Vietnamese translation of the 2012 book “The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History,” by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein.
Trade between Israel and Vietnam in the first eight months of 2014 reached $624.9 million, a 60 percent increase over the corresponding period last year, according to data recently released by the embassy. — jta