Vietnam War films in spotlight at Berlin festival

The 58th Berlin Film Festival will screen a retrospective recalling the impact of the Vietnam conflict on US cinema.

The 58th Berlin Film Festival will screen a retrospective recalling the impact of the Vietnam conflict on US cinema, the organisers said on Monday.

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Mike Nichols' 1970 anti-war film

Catch-22

and

Coming Home

, for which Jane Fonda won an Oscar in 1979, will also be part of the eight-film programme running from February 8 to 15.

Not all the films deal directly with the Vietnam War --

Catch-22

is set during World War II and Robert Altman's comedy classic

MASH

in the Korean War -- but they were mostly made during the later conflict and reflect a new perspective in Hollywood cinema, the Berlinale organisers said.

They said the retrospective has been timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the "Vietnam Congress", an anti-war protest in Berlin that became a key moment in the left-wing student movement that swept Europe in 1968.

The Berlinale will open on February 7 with the premiere of acclaimed US director Martin Scorcese's documentary about the Rolling Stones,

.