Stills from “Förortsungar” (Kidz in da Hood), one of the six Swedish films to screen in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

Six of Sweden’s best films will be screened in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

The five-day film fest in Hanoi gets underway at the National Cinema Center at 7 p.m. today with an opening ceremony and the screening of “Desmond & träskpatraskfällan” (Desmond and the Swamp Barbarian Trap), Sweden’s first stop-motion animated movie.

Subsequently, the center at 87 Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District and Ngoc Khanh Cinema, 523 Kim Ma Street in the same district, will show “Darling,” “Storm,” “Underbara älskade” (Suddenly), “Pirret” (Butterfly) and “Förortsungar” (Kidz in da Hood).

In “Kidz in da Hood,” an orphaned nine-year-old girl who faces deportation from Sweden finds shelter in a run-down public housing block, where she stays with a punk rocker and befriends other kids in the area.

The acclaimed children’s movie won the Best Picture prize at the 2007 Golden Beetle Awards of the Swedish Film Institute, which is organizing the film festival in partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute.

“Storm” was nominated in the same category.

“Suddenly” tells of the relationship between a man and his teenage son after his wife and younger son die in a car accident, while “Butterfly” is about a 13-year-old girl who discovers she can fly.

“Butterfly” will kick off the event in HCMC on Thursday at Dong Da Cinema, 890 Tran Hung Dao Street, District 5.

All the others will be screened at Tan Son Nhat Cinema, 186 Nguyen Van Troi Street, Tan Binh District until June 15.

The movies will be shown in Swedish with English subtitles and Vietnamese voice-over. Free tickets are available at the cinemas.

Reported by Pham Thu Nga