The movie Southern Forest Land   by director Nguyen Quang Dung is still a hot topic, attracting public attention. Since its release, the film has been embroiled in many controversies about its content and details that are considered to be historically inaccurate.

After that, the Cinema Department re-evaluated the film, and the producer had to edit some details and dialogues in the film.

In response to public controversy over the film, during a discussion session at the National Assembly's socio-economic reports, delegate Bui Hoai Son, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Culture and Education Committee, said that the story of the film Southern Forest Land is not limited to a film, but is more broadly a perspective on how to make historical films, create art, and develop the country's art market.

" Resolution 23-NQ/TW of the Politburo on continuing to build and develop literature and art in the new period emphasized: "Literature and art are very important and especially delicate fields of culture". Using historical materials to create literature and art is a very encouraging topic but faces many difficulties.

The difficulty comes not only from how to balance respect for history and artistic creation, to make history more attractive, closer, and more appealing to current audiences, but also in balancing public evaluation when the public is now very important, and there are many conflicting opinions (both praise and criticism, praise a lot, criticize less, praise less, criticize more...), and in the vast cyberspace, making it very difficult to create a work of art with personality and creativity," National Assembly delegate Bui Hoai Son assessed.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son, respecting history must be considered a principle. No matter how creative, there must be a framework. But how to harmonize these two factors at a level that the majority of the public accepts depends largely on the general perception of society.

"We often praise historical films from China, Korea, etc. for being attractive. But I believe that such films, if made in Vietnam, will certainly cause a lot of controversy and will be difficult to escape public criticism. Of course, each culture is different, so the way of making films must be different.

But I always think that if science opens up knowledge about nature to society, then artists open up about goodness, beauty, and love.

Of the three goals of education of truth, goodness and beauty, culture and art account for two. True writers and artists are always the pioneers who open up the meaning of life to people and for that they must sacrifice themselves. A civilized society is a society that knows how to listen and create a free corridor for culture and art," Mr. Bui Hoai Son emphasized.

According to delegate Bui Hoai Son, in the current context, artistic creations about history need to be viewed more "openly", listened to more positively, and supported more.

With that, artists dare to sacrifice themselves for art, for the noble values ​​of life, to exploit historical materials to create literary and artistic products worthy of the times.

"When we have these works of art, not only will history become more attractive, vivid and easier to remember, but the important spirits and messages from the past will help us gain more pride and strengthen our national strength from the country's cultural history.

These are invaluable resources coming from the "very important, especially delicate field of culture" in the current period," Mr. Bui Hoai Son added.

Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son hopes that the recent debates will not discourage artists who are passionate about exploiting historical topics. Because the country's history is a wonderful material for literary and artistic products, requiring the talent of artists to shine.

Exploiting that material will help us tell the history, beautiful images, and inspiring stories of Vietnam to domestic and international audiences, affirming the position and stature of the nation, and forming soft power for the country.

He hopes that the audience will support the film Southern Forest Land in particular, Vietnamese cinema and art in general, especially literary and artistic works exploiting historical materials.

From there, it will add spiritual motivation to artists, helping literature and art gain more strength, thereby gaining more resistance to inappropriate, strange, offensive, and negatively influencing literary and artistic products, building an advanced Vietnamese culture with a strong national identity as set out in the Party's Resolution.

Le Chi