Vietnam (illustration)
Vietnam (illustration)Flash 90

A five-day film festival in Vietnam organized by Israel’s embassy opened Saturday at the National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. The festival will then move on November 6 to the BHD Star Cineplex ICON68 in Ho Chi Minh City. 

The first-time festival, announced by the embassy on its Facebook page earlier last week, will mark 20 years of Vietnamese diplomatic relations with Israel.

According to Israeli ambassador Meirav Eilon-Shahar, the festival will introduce Vietnamese audiences to such Israeli films as “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 Vietnam's understanding of Israeli culture, Eilon-Shahar told news site vietnamnet.vn.

Other activities marking the 20-year anniversary include the launching of a Vietnamese translation of the 2012 book “The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History,” by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein. The event will take place at Hanoi’s General Science Library on November 7. 

The Israeli embassy is also facilitating a Facebook-based quiz in which participants will be asked to answer five questions about a different photograph once a week for a period of six weeks. The winner of the competition will receive an iPhone 6. Other prizes include a large, framed map of Israel and a book about the Jewish state.

In the first eight months of 2014, trade between Israel and Vietnam reached $624.9 million, a 60 percent increase over the corresponding period last year, according to data released by the embassy earlier in October.