Thunska Pansittivorakul’s new autobiographical documentary Avalon (แดนศักดิ์สิทธิ์) begins with a full-frontal sex scene between Thunska and his then-boyfriend Harit Srikhao. (Co-director Harit’s exhibition Whitewash was censored by the military in 2017.) Harit is twenty years younger than Thunska, and the dynamic between them recalls the similar opening sequence in Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo) by Carlos Reygadas.
Around half of Avalon’s one-hour running time consists of sex tapes recorded at different stages of Thunska and Harit’s relationship, including a ménage à trois with Itdhi Phanmanee, who co-directed sPACEtIME (กาล-อวกาศ) with Thunska and Harit. The relationship has since ended, and Avalon feels uncomfortably close to ‘revenge porn’, as intimate footage recorded privately has been repurposed. (The film received its world premiere on 28th October at the DOK Leipzig film festival in Germany.)
Avalon also includes scenes filmed at a disused swimming pool in a housing project abandoned after Thailand’s 2011 floods. The film charts the disintegration of Thunska and Harit’s relationship, and the empty pool evokes Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les diaboliques (‘the devils’), with its own doomed love triangle. (The title sequences of Avalon and Les diaboliques both feature lingering shots of murky, stagnant water.)
Around half of Avalon’s one-hour running time consists of sex tapes recorded at different stages of Thunska and Harit’s relationship, including a ménage à trois with Itdhi Phanmanee, who co-directed sPACEtIME (กาล-อวกาศ) with Thunska and Harit. The relationship has since ended, and Avalon feels uncomfortably close to ‘revenge porn’, as intimate footage recorded privately has been repurposed. (The film received its world premiere on 28th October at the DOK Leipzig film festival in Germany.)
Avalon also includes scenes filmed at a disused swimming pool in a housing project abandoned after Thailand’s 2011 floods. The film charts the disintegration of Thunska and Harit’s relationship, and the empty pool evokes Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les diaboliques (‘the devils’), with its own doomed love triangle. (The title sequences of Avalon and Les diaboliques both feature lingering shots of murky, stagnant water.)
