A still from the classic silent film Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin), being screened in Vietnam as part of Europe Day celebrations

The European Union Committee and the Goethe Institutes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are set to screen a Soviet silent movie as one of many cultural activities to celebrate Europe Days beginning this month.

The Soviet classic, known in the US as “Battleship Potemkin,” became popular in Moscow after its first screening in 1925. It then went on to international fame.

The movie portrays a 1905 mutiny on the battleship Potemkin during the Russian Revolution and the following rebellion and regression.

After a screening last weekend at the Hanoi Opera House, the multimedia show will come to HCMC Theater on May 12.

Free tickets are available at the HCMC Goethe Institution at 335/4 Dien Bien Phu Street, District 3.

Oser, also a conductor, is already known in Vietnam for dubbing two silent movies – the German Der müde Tod (The Weary Death) by director Fritz Lang, and the American Academy Award winner “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,” by German director F.W. Murnau.

Strobel, famous for his work in composing music for films – as well as for editing, producing and recording – had also visited Vietnam earlier to play piano for director Lang’s silent film Metropolis.

In celebration of the month-long Europe Days, the European Film

Festival will introduce works from all 14 EU member states at the National Cinema Center in Hanoi from May 1 1- 21 and also at Galaxy Nguyen Trai in HCMC from May 21-30.

The sixth annual festival will also feature paintings, sculptures and conceptual work by Spain’s Alberto Coranzo until Friday at the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Hanoi.

Last Friday and Saturday at the Hanoi Opera House and the HCMC Conservatory of Music, performances of French classical music took place. On May 20, a free Sibelius Concert will be held at L’Espace, located at 24 Trang Tien Street, Hanoi. Tickets are available now from L’Espace. And at 6 p.m. Saturday, a European Food Festival will take place at King Ly Thai To Monument Square, Hanoi.

Next month, dancer Helena Martin and pianist Rosa Torres Pardo will delight audiences with a Spanish music and dance night on June 8 at the Hanoi Opera House. Free tickets can be booked via phone at (04) 3771 5207 from next month or picked up at the Embassy of Spain, 15th floor, Daeha Business Center on Kim Ma Street, Hanoi from June 3-5.

One of the most fascinating and prolific British directors, John Schlesinger, will be honored with a retrospective at the Hanoi Cinematheque on 22A Hai Ba Trung Street from May 22 to June 6. Free tickets are available at the British Council at 20 Thuy Khue Street, or at the Hanoi Cinematheque from Friday.

Reported by Nghia Pham – Huong Giang