Up in the forest to show movies on the big screen

The old A2 jeep took us from the paved road to the rough red dirt road, then crossed the Song Phan railway station and ran into the forest on the muddy trail at that time.

The car got stuck in the mud, the guys got out of the car to carry some of the equipment and then shouted to each other to push it through the stagnant water like a stream. The whole team looked at each other with muddy clothes and burst out laughing. Then the car continued to run into the forest.

Stopping on the vacant lot, looking around, scattered with small stilt houses of ethnic minorities. The village was sparsely populated, counting over and over again a few dozen houses. It was not yet evening, the village was deserted. A few naked, black children ran out, looking at us or the strange-looking car in confusion. We asked where their parents were, some of them could not understand Vietnamese.

The sun disappeared behind the forest trees. The six brothers began their work: erecting the screen, assembling the machine, pulling the speakers... The villagers also began returning from the fields and deep forests to the village. The men carried heavy baskets of cassava on their bare backs, the children nodded off behind their mothers. Bundles of firewood and rafts on their shoulders. The villagers saw us running over, happily cheering: There is a movie, there is a movie.

Hello, hello. We are the mobile projection team number 3 of Thuan Hai Film Company. After dinner, we would like to invite everyone to gather at the projection area in front of the village to watch our free movie screening program. Today, we are serving you the movie Hero Hiding Against the French Invaders by Vietnam Feature Film Studio.

Listening to us on the loudspeaker, many people looked at each other and whispered something. It seemed that some people did not understand yet so they asked each other in their mother tongue. We waited for the night to fall dark enough for the projector to shine the film from the machine room. When everyone had gathered, we invited them to sit in the middle of the open space and look at the big screen. The people were so peaceful, so united, so orderly, and listened to us so much. They lacked so much light from civilization. It was so sad, but because they lived so far away, the projection team only came once every few months to bring a few good movies to serve the spirit and help the people have some joy after months of hard work.

It has become a thing of the past. The nights of showing mobile movies on the big screen on the natural lawn outside no longer exist, with the progress of civilization. As well as the small village of the Raglay ethnic minority in the deep forest, now Tan Quang village, Song Phan commune, Ham Tan district.

The village now has a national highway running through it, the population is larger and happier. The black, shirtless children of that time are now grown up, their successors have gone to work all over the country, using smart technology to contact their parents and grandparents.

Gone are the days when every afternoon when we heard a mobile film team coming from afar to the village, young and old would run after them, cheering and clapping.

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