Friends of Vietnam Heritage (FVH) will screen the film “With or Without Me” at the Cinematheque in Hanoi at 7.30 p.m. on Jan 12.

According to a FVH press release, the film, which won the Planète Rouge 2011 award at the Marseille International Film Festival 2011 and was featured at the Torino Film Festival 2011, is a joint work by Vietnamese artist Tran Phuong Thao and Swann Dubus from France.

It tells the story of Thi and Trung who live in the lush, rice-terraced mountains of Vietnam’s northwest territory of Dien Bien.

Like many young people in this region (which is on the main heroin route from Laos to China), they are drug addicts who are also HIV positive.

Forced to live a life marked by the efforts of family members, friends and doctors to keep them away from drugs, Thi wants to kick his habit but Trung just wants to die.

Showing the daily struggle of living with drugs and the devastating consequences of addiction, the camera becomes a part of their existence and reveals how their ‘habit’ destroys their hopes and dreams.

By showing the destinies and tragedy of two individual lives, the film sheds light on a wider unfolding story about drug use in Vietnam and in so doing,  hopes to contribute to the debate about how best to tackle this issue.

Tickets priced at VND100,000 are available at Hanoi Cinematheque, 22A Hai Ba Trung Street.

Language: Vietnamese with English subtitles.