Jaws

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, the original summer blockbuster, was released fifty years ago, in 1975. To mark its fiftieth anniversary, a new documentary — Jaws @ 50 — was released on blu-ray, and the film is being rereleased in cinemas worldwide. Jaws will open in Thailand on 25th September.

Jaws was shown here five years ago, at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, as part of the World Class Cinema (ทึ่ง! หนังโลก) season. A planned screening at Scala in Bangkok was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

There are two other classics also being rereleased this month, both on IMAX screens: Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) opens today in IMAX DMR format, and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight opens on 18th September.

When The Dark Knight was shown at the Paragon Cineplex IMAX on its original release in 2008, it was projected in 70mm. Sadly, the 70mm projector was removed in 2020 after repeatedly breaking down. In fact, from today, the Paragon IMAX cinema is temporarily closed for renovation, meaning that Thailand has no full-size IMAX screen currently in operation.

เก็บตกวงเสวนา 49 ปี 6 ตุลา: เมื่อเรื่องราว 6 ตุลาไม่ได้ถูกจำกัดไว้เพียงที่ธรรมศาสตร์ (‘a briefing on the 49th anniversary of 6th Oct.’)

เก็บตกวงเสวนา 49 ปี 6 ตุลา: เมื่อเรื่องราว 6 ตุลาไม่ได้ถูกจำกัดไว้เพียงที่ธรรมศาสตร์ (‘a briefing on the 49th anniversary of 6th Oct.: the 6th Oct. event is not limited to Thammasat University’), held today at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science, featured a Q&A with Patporn Phoothong, co-director of the short film The Two Brothers (สองพี่น้อง). The event was a precursor to the upcoming forty-ninth anniversary of the massacre that took place at Thammasat on 6th October 1976.

The Two Brothers was screened as part of today’s event. Directed by Patporn and Teerawat Rujenatham, the documentary features interviews with relatives of two young men who were hanged by police for campaigning against the return of former dictator Thanom Kittikachorn from exile. When student actors at Thammasat staged a reenactment of the hanging, the right-wing Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper falsely accused them of hanging an effigy of the Crown Prince (now Rama X), and this inflammatory headline sparked the massacre.

The brutal events of that notorious day are encapsulated in a much-reproduced photograph by Neal Ulevich, which shows a vigilante preparing to beat a hanged corpse with a folding chair. In reference to that image, today’s event included a folding chair on display.

The Two Brothers was previously shown at Hope Space in Bangkok last year, at Thammasat in 2020 and 2017, and at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya in 2017. Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses this and other Thai films that refer to the 1976 massacre.

The 33rd Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards

In anticipation of the Bangkok Critics Assembly Awards, honouring the best Thai films released last year, the shortlisted feature films will be shown at Century Sukhumvit between 13th and 17th September, followed by Q&A sessions with their respective directors. The nominated films include Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส) screening on 13th September, Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) on 14th September, and Breaking the Cycle (อำนาจ ศรัทธา อนาคต) on 16th September.

Taklee Genesis

Chookiat Sakveerakul’s Taklee Genesis features time travel, dinosaurs, kaiju monsters, zombies, cavemen, the Cold War, a dystopian future, and the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University, all woven together into an ambitious sci-fi epic. (It was shown earlier this year at the Thai Film Archive.)

In a prologue that takes place in May 1992 (an unspoken reference to ‘Black May’), a young girl witnesses “dead bodies falling from the sky.” These are students who died during the Thammasat tragedy, their bodies teleported by the Taklee Genesis device, a time machine that can create alternate realities. As one character says: “Taklee Genesis was used to cover up a massacre.”

When the girl, Stella, grows up, she learns that her father was a CIA agent involved in the development of the Taklee Genesis. One of the project’s test subjects, Lawan, was transformed into a forest-dwelling spirit, like the monkey ghost in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ), another supernatural personification of the legacy of the Cold War.

Stella and her friend Kong use the Taklee Genesis to travel back in time to Thammasat on 6th October 1976, after Kong discovers that he is one of the massacre victims who fell from the sky. Chookiat recreates the violence of that day, showing Red Gaur militiamen gunning down students. A young boy stands alone on a balcony laughing at the carnage, in a reference to a smiling onlooker in a photograph by Neal Ulevich. (The artist Khai Maew created a model of the child, which he called Happy Boy.)

Thanks to the Taklee Genesis, Kong has the chance to fight back against the vigilantes who have stormed the campus. This fantasy scenario, in which a Thammasat victim is given the agency to tackle his potential killers, is similar to the alternate history narrative in Preecha Raksorn’s comic strip Once Upon a Time at..., in which the victim in Ulevich’s photograph escapes from his assailant.

Discussion of the Thammasat massacre was suppressed for years, not by the fictional Taklee Genesis device, but instead by successive military governments. Today, it’s primarily through photographs of the event, particularly the famous image by Ulevich, that the incident is remembered. In one of the film’s most powerful moments, Kong takes a roll of film from the camera of his Thammasat classmate and gives it to Stella, telling her: “Make sure we’re not forgotten.”

The Thammasat massacre is a notorious incident in Thailand’s modern history, though it has rarely been represented on screen. The 6th October scenes in Taklee Genesis are almost unprecedented: the only previous attempt to dramatise the brutality of the event was in the horror film Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ), which was cut by the Thai film censors.

Shakespeare Must Die

Shakespeare Must Die, directed by Ing K., is a Thai adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Pisarn Pattanapeeradej in the lead role. The play is presented in two parallel versions: a production in period costume, and a contemporary political interpretation. The period version is faithful to Shakespeare’s original, though it also breaks the fourth wall, with cutaways to the audience and an interval outside the theatre (featuring a cameo by the director).

In the contemporary sequences, Macbeth is reimagined as Mekhdeth, a prime minister facing a crisis. Street protesters shout “ok pbai!” (‘get out!’), and the protests are infiltrated by assassins listed in the credits as ‘men in black’. Ing has downplayed any direct link to Thai politics, though “Thaksin ok pbai!” was the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s rallying cry against Thaksin Shinawatra, and ‘men in black’ were blamed for instigating violence in 2010. Another satirical line in the script — “Dear Leader brings happy-ocracy!” — predicts Prayut Chan-o-cha’s propaganda song Returning Happiness to the Thai Kingdom (คืนความสุขให้ประเทศไทย).

The parallels between Mekhdeth and Thaksin highlight the politically-motivated nature of the ban imposed on the film in 2012. Ironically, the project was initially funded by the Ministry of Culture, during Abhisit Vejjajiva’s premiership: it received a grant from the ไทยเข้มแข็ง (‘strong Thailand’) stimulus package. The Abhisit government was only too happy to greenlight a script criticising Thaksin, though by the time the film was finished, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was in power, and her administration was somewhat less disposed to this anti-Thaksin satire, hence the ban.

The film’s climax, a recreation of the Thammasat massacre, is its most controversial sequence. A photograph by Neal Ulevich, taken during the massacre, shows a vigilante preparing to hit a corpse with a chair, and Shakespeare Must Die restages the incident. A hanging body (symbolising Shakespeare himself) is repeatedly hit with a chair, though rather than dwelling on the violence, Ing cuts to reaction shots of the crowd, which (as in 1976) resembles a baying mob.

When I interviewed her for Thai Cinema Uncensored, Ing didn’t mince her words, describing the censors as “a bunch of trembling morons with the power of life and death over our films.” Thai Cinema Uncensored also includes an insider’s account from a member of the appeals committee, who said he was obliged by his department head to vote against releasing the film: “I had to vote no, because it was an instruction from my director. But if I could have voted freely, I would have voted yes.”

The ban on Shakespeare Must Die was finally lifted by the Supreme Court last year, and its theatrical release came a few months later. It has since been shown at Burapha University and Chiang Mai University, and its most recent screening was at the Phimailongweek (พิมายฬองวีค) experimental arts festival in Korat.

Breaking the Cycle

Breaking the Cycle, directed by Aekaphong Saransate and Thanakrit Duangmaneeporn, is a fly-on-the-wall account of the Future Forward party, which was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2020. (Future Forward was founded as a progressive alternative to military dictatorship. The party came third in the 2019 election, after a wave of support for its charismatic leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, though he was disqualified as an MP by the Constitutional Court.)

The film begins in 2014 with Thanathorn’s determination to end the vicious cycle of military coups that has characterised Thailand’s modern political history. This mission gives the film its title, and Future Forward co-founder Piyabutr Saengkanokkul asks: “Why is Thailand stuck in this cycle of coups?” The documentary benefits from its extensive access to every senior figure within Future Forward. The directors were even able to film Thanathorn as he reacted to the guilty verdicts being delivered by the Constitutional Court.

The documentary ends with the caption “THE CYCLE CONTINUES”, which is sadly accurate: Future Forward’s successor, Move Forward, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court last year despite winning the 2023 election. The movement’s third incarnation, the People’s Party, endorsed Anutin Charnvirakul as Prime Minister this week, on the condition that he agreed to call a new election within four months.

Breaking the Cycle went on general release last year. It was later shown at the Thai Film Archive, as part of the Lost and Longing (แด่วันคืนที่สูญหาย) season. It was also screened at A.E.Y. Space in Songkla, and at the Bangsaen Film Festival at Burapha University. It was part of the Hits Me Movies... One More Time programme at House Samyan in Bangkok, and earlier this year it was screened at Thammasat University and Chulalongkorn University.

A Useful Ghost

[This review contains spoilers.]

A young woman dies, and returns as a ghost to reunite with her husband. This Thai legend, the story of Mae Nak, has been retold dozens of times, including in the blockbuster Pee Mak (พี่มาก .. พระโขนง) starring Davika Hoorne. (I wrote about the various Mae Nak adaptations for Encounter Thailand magazine.)

Davika also stars in A Useful Ghost (ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ), though there’s a bizarre twist to the tale: she plays Nat, a ghost that returns to her husband March not as a traditional spectre, but as a haunted vacuum cleaner. (The names Nat and March evoke those of Mae Nak and her husband Mak.)

In A Useful Ghost, the spirits of the dead possess electrical appliances, either to be near their loved ones or, in most cases, to torment the people responsible for their deaths. Inhaling toxic dust particles seems to be a common cause of death, hence the possessed vacuums, and this is a reflection of real life: Bangkok and Chiang Mai are notorious for their air pollution.

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film begins as an absurd comedy, as the haunted Hoover trundles around. (A Useful Ghost shares its sense of deadpan humour with the short films of Sorayos Prapapan.) In a hilarious early sequence, a monk insults Nat’s ghost, prompting a debate among his fellow monks: “Sir, we’re holy men. We shouldn’t use words like ‘cunt’ too liberally.”

In its second half, A Useful Ghost becomes much darker. We discover that some appliances are haunted by victims of political violence: Dr Paul, a government minister, complains that he can’t sleep due to the sounds of gunshots replayed by the ghosts of those who died at Ratchaprasong in 2010. It’s this noise, not his conscience, keeping him awake at night.

Dr Paul leads a decadent lifestyle, and seems to have authority everywhere he goes, yet his ministerial portfolio is unspecified. This ambiguity, and his generic name, are presumably intended to avoid any association with real-life politicians. His wife complains about protesters who revive memories of the 1976 Thammasat massacre and the 1932 revolution, and a subplot about the dismantling of a frieze also refers to the removal of monuments commemorating 1932.

The film shifts in tone from comedy to political satire, as Nat taps into people’s dreams and the state uses electroconvulsive therapy to erase the memories of the ghosts’ living relatives. (If people can’t remember the deceased in their dreams, then the ghosts will disappear.) The ECT not only eliminates the ghosts, it also ensures that any memories of state atrocities are erased, and March resists this brainwashing by reading a (fictional) book about Ratchaprasong. As he tells Nat, she is helping to delete history, so he is trying to preserve it.

The forgetting of political violence is also a key theme in the sci-fi film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), the short film Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts (วงโคจรของความทรงจำ), and the video installation Delete Our History, Now! (อำนาจ/การลบทิ้ง). There are three short films featuring the ghosts of Ratchaprasong massacre victims: We Will Forget It Again (แล้วเราจะลืมมันอีกครั้ง) — which also deals with the theme of forgetting the past — This House Have Ghost [sic], and Hush, Tonight the Dead Are Dreaming Loudly (as discussed in Thai Cinema Uncensored).

As in Ten Years Thailand and Supernatural (เหนือธรรมชาติ), A Useful Ghost uses dystopian science-fiction to comment on present-day Thailand. Like the film’s scientists wiping memories, successive military governments have sought to suppress discussion of controversial events. The result of this whitewashing is a cycle of nascent democratic reforms repeatedly reset by military coups, as forgotten history is destined to repeat itself.

A Useful Ghost’s initial focus on dust particles and vacuum cleaners is given an additional resonance in its second half. In Thailand, the idiom ‘dust under the feet’ refers to people swept under the carpet like specks of dust to be vacuumed up. The film’s cathartic ending hints at this metaphorical meaning of ‘dust’, as the ghosts wreak their revenge on Dr Paul while dust particles are shown glittering in the air.

Thai Film Archive

The Thai Film Archive in Salaya shows a continuous programme of classic films, though over the next two months there will be some especially remarkable screenings. September and October’s highlights include several of the most important Thai films of all time, and classics of world cinema.

There will be a chance to see a selection of films on the national heritage register. (Each year since 2011, titles have been added to a list films of artistic or historical significance, with new additions announced each 4th October.) These range from the documentary การปฏิบัติหน้าที่เพื่อประเทศชาติในตำแหน่งหัวหน้ารัฐบาลและผู้นำทางทหาร จนถึงล้มป่วยและอสัญกรรมของ ฯพณฯ จอมพลสฤษดิ์ ธนะรัชต์ (‘Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat performing duties for the country as the head of government and military leader until his illness and death’) on 19th September, to Somboonsuk Niyomsiri’s all-time classic A Man Called Tone (โทน) on 2nd and 27th September.

Sarit Thanarat

The Sarit newsreel, previously screened at the Borderless Film Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์ไร้พรมแดน) in Khon Kaen, is a fascinating example of Cold War state propaganda. At the time of its original release, it would have provided a counter-narrative to the exposés of the dictator’s decadence and corruption that were rushed into print after his death. The film depicts Sarit as a PM dedicated to his people, especially in Isan, where he is seen working to alleviate poverty. He is portrayed as a tireless leader, to the extent that he became ill through overwork, and the film ends with scenes of national mourning following his state funeral.

A Man Called Tone

The release of A Man Called Tone in 1970 was a turning point in Thai cinema history. Filmed in widescreen 35mm, it marked the end of the 16mm era, a formulaic mode of production that had dominated the industry for the previous twenty years. Stylistically, its modern approach to characterisation, acting, narrative, music, and cinematography was equally groundbreaking. It was last shown in 2023, to mark Somboonsuk’s ninetieth birthday, and was previously screened in 2022 at Doc Club and Pub in Bangkok, though a gala screening at the Scala cinema in 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Monrak Luk Thung

If A Man Called Tone signalled the birth of modern Thai cinema, the blockbuster musical Monrak Luk Thung (มนต์รักลูกทุ่ง) marked the end of the golden age. Starring Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat, Thai cinema’s greatest stars, and released in 1970 — the same year as A Man Called Tone — it was an unprecedented box-office success. It will be shown at the Film Archive on 1st and 24th October, as part of The Influencer, a season of films starring Mitr and inspired by him.

The Influencer also includes two films by Wisit Sasanatieng: Tears of the Black Tiger (ฟ้าทะลายโจร) and The Red Eagle (อินทรีแดง). Tears of the Black Tiger, a tribute to Mitr’s era of filmmaking, is screening on 11th and 21st October. The Red Eagle, a direct remake of Mitr’s final film, will be shown on 14th and 29th October. (Both films were previously shown by the Film Archive at Wisit retrospectives in 2021 and 2010.)

Tears of the Black Tiger

Tears of the Black Tiger, Wisit’s directorial debut, became a cult classic due to its uniquely over-saturated colour palette, its ‘spaghetti western’-style violence, and its lakorn-style melodrama. Celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, it’s one of the greatest Thai films ever made. It has been shown quite frequently over the years: in Chiang Mai in 2022, at Alliance Française in 2020, at Bangkok Screening Room in 2017, at Thailand Creative and Design Center in 2016, at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in 2012, and at the Film Archive in 2013 and 2009.

The Red Eagle

The Red Eagle stars Ananda Everingham (who I interviewed in 2013) as the masked superhero originally played by Mitr, but in this updated version, the Red Eagle is as much a criminal as a hero. Like Iron Man, he is dependent on pain-relieving medication; like Batman in The Dark Knight, he rides a gleaming black motorbike; like both of them, he has no superpowers.

Political corruption is a major theme, and scenes in which the Thai PM’s car is surrounded by protesters are a reminder of the 2009 Songkran demonstrations in Bangkok. In fact, The Red Eagle is one of the few films to feature a prime minister as a character, in this case one who abandons his principles once he assumes office, reneging on a pre-election pledge to ban nuclear power.

Censor Must Die

Another Film Archive season, Woman with a Movie Camera, pays tribute to leading female directors and includes screenings of Ing K.’s Censor Must Die (เซ็นเซอร์ต้องตาย) on 8th and 28th October. The documentary follows producer Manit Sriwanichpoom as he appeals against the Ministry of Culture’s decision to ban Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) and files a case with the Office of the National Human Rights Commission. (After more than a decade, the ban was finally revoked by the Supreme Court last year.)

Censor Must Die’s most revealing scene takes place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture: in the lobby, a TV plays a video demonstrating the traditional Thai method of sitting in a polite and respectful manner. The video encapsulates the Ministry’s didactic and outdated interpretation of Thai culture, and it was parodied by the mock instructional video “How to Behave Elegantly Like a Thai” in Sorayos Prapapan’s film Arnold Is a Model Student (อานนเป็นนักเรียนตัวอย่าง).

The documentary premiered at the Freedom on Film (สิทธิหนังไทย) seminar in 2013. It was shown a few months later at the Film Archive, and had private screenings at Silpakorn University and the Friese-Greene Club. After screenings in May and July last year, it is now showing on regular rotation at Cinema Oasis, the cinema Ing and Manit founded in Bangkok.

La haine
(‘hate’)

Finally, the French classic La haine (‘hate’), directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, will be shown at the Film Archive on 28th September. La haine, an explosive film exposing racial tensions in banlieue ghettos outside Paris, was also screened earlier this year at House Samyan in Bangkok, to mark its thirtieth anniversary.

Isan Odyssey

Thunska Pansittivorakul’s new documentary Isan Odyssey (อีสานอำพราง) had its premiere yesterday, as the opening film of the What the Doc! (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์ สารคดีนานาชาติ แห่งประเทศไทย) film festival. Thunska took part in a Q&A after the film, at House Samyan in Bangkok, and there will be another screening and Q&A at Century Sukhumvit in Bangkok on 3rd September.

Phassarawin Kulsomboon, Isan Odyssey’s cinematographer, previously directed Khon Boys (เด็กโขน), a documentary about a troupe of young khon dancers, and Isan Odyssey begins in a similar vein, following a troupe of young mor lam performers. Just as Khon Boys covers the historical restrictions imposed on khon performances, Isan Odyssey links the past suppression of mor lam to the political history of Thailand.

Isan Odyssey highlights the origins of mor lam as a form of political expression in the Isan region. Modern mor lam, in contrast, is primarily a commercial entertainment: “Gone are the days of ideology and fighting against state injustice.”

The veteran leader of the mor lam troupe recalls his youth in the 1960s, when he heard shots fired from helicopters, the sound of “Thai soldiers shooting communists”. This provides a segue to the film’s central theme: the state’s anti-Communist campaign in various Isan provinces during the Cold War.

A voiceover describes how suspected Communists were “brutally murdered” during Sarit Thanarat’s regime, and how this “ruthless suppression” continued during the Thanom Kittikachorn era. An elderly resident of the village of Nabua describes the situation at that time as “suffocatingly brutal.”

Similarly, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has made several films in and around Nabua, whose inhabitants were among the first victims of the anti-Communist purge. In Apichatpong’s short film A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (จดหมายถงลงบญม), a narrator recalls the area’s past: “Soldiers once occupied this place. They killed and tortured the villagers and forced them to flee to the jungle.”

Isan Odyssey touches on three specific historical incidents, though only briefly. It includes 16mm newsreel footage from 14th October 1973, and a few photographs from 6th October 1976. A young photographer describes the military crackdown in May 2010, and a caption informs us that this resulted in 108 casualties. This grim statistic was a bone of contention in Nontawat Numbenchapol’s documentary Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง), which was banned in part because it claimed that around 100 people had died.

One of Thunska’s films, This Area Is Under Quarantine (บริเวณนี้อยู่ภายใต้การกักกัน), was also banned. As a result, he told me in an interview for Thai Cinema Uncensored: “I decided not to show any of my films in Thailand.” Working with German producer Jürgen Brüning, he made nine films — The Terrorists (ผู้ก่อการร้าย), Supernatural (เหนือธรรมชาติ), sPACEtIME (กาล-อวกาศ), Reincarnate (จุติ), Homogeneous, Empty Time (สุญกาล), Santikhiri Sonata (สันติคีรี โซนาตา), Avalon (แดนศักดิ์สิทธิ์), Danse Macabre (มรณสติ), and Damnatio Memoriae (ไม่พึงปรารถนา) — all of which featured sexually explicit and politically sensitive content, and none of which had theatrical releases in Thailand.

Isan Odyssey is an exception: it was produced by Documentary Club in Thailand, rather than by Brüning in Germany, and it will go on theatrical release here on 25th September. As in Thunska’s other work, Isan Odyssey directly criticises the Thai state, though it avoids the graphic imagery of his earlier films, hence its ‘15’ rating from the Thai film censorship board.

Chard Festival

A three-day arts festival will take place in Phatthalung between 22nd and 24th August. The Chard Festival (ฉาด เฟสติวัล) features a programme of films by local directors, including two short films by Vichart Somkaew: The Poem of the River (บทกวีแห่งสายน้ำ) and (in its premiere screening) Antipsychotics. There will also be a screening of Vichart’s recent documentary When My Father Was a Communist (เมื่อพ่อผมเป็นคอมมิวนิสต์). One of the best Thai short films of recent years — Chatchawan Thongchan’s From Forest to City (อรัญนคร) — will also be shown, as will Nontawat Machai and Jakkraphan Sriwichai’s short film The Circle’s Circumference (เส้นรอบวง). Screenings will take place on 24th August at the Boone coffee shop.

Antipsychotics

At the start of Antipsychotics, Vichart reveals that he suffers from depression. In a voiceover, he describes his symptoms, which include hallucinations and feelings of paranoia. On screen, we see profiles of various antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs, and their possible side effects, accompanied by stock footage.

The director also recounts the traumatic experience that he feels led to his condition: the humiliating hazing rituals and violent punishments he endured during his conscription. “I drew a red card and was drafted into the military service”, he says, before describing the physical and mental harm he was subjected to.

There have been occasional news reports of cadets being injured — and worse — during military training sessions, though there is less coverage of the potential psychological toll that Vichart describes. At the end of his powerful and ultimately optimistic film, he argues that conscription should be replaced by voluntary service.

The Poem of the River

The Poem of the River opens with a caption describing “a Royal Development Project, costing 100 million baht” to dredge the water from the Lai Phan canal in Phatthalung. The film juxtaposes tranquil images of the canal and its verdant, fertile banks — including some beautiful drone photography — with footage of the dredging process.

The effect is similar to Koraphat Cheeradit’s short drama Yesterday Is Another Day, in which scenes set in a woodland are interrupted by shots of a JCB digging up the area. The Poem of the River has also been shown at the Chiang Mai Film Festival 2025 (เทศกาลหนังแห่งเมืองเชียงใหม่ 2568), and at the Isan Creative Festival 2025 (เทศกาลอีสานสร้างสรรค์).

When My Father Was a Communist

For When My Father Was a Communist, Vichart interviewed his father, Sawang, and other former members of the Communist Party of Thailand. The film is a valuable social history, as the veterans explain their decisions to join the CPT, and describe their experiences in the forests of Phatthalung.

When My Father Was a Communist is also a record of the state’s violent suppression of Communist insurgents, hundreds (potentially thousands) of whom were burned in oil drums in 1972. These so-called ‘red barrel’ deaths were most prevalent in Phatthalung, and have never been officially investigated. (The names of the victims are listed before the film’s end credits.) There have been other documentaries about the red barrels, but When My Father Was a Communist stands out for Vichart’s close connections to the subject: this is a deeply personal project, as he was born in Phatthalung, and he is documenting the memories of his elderly father.

The film notes that the repressive atmosphere of the 1970s has not disappeared. One speaker says that the political system has barely changed since the military dictatorship after the 1976 coup. Another makes a direct comparison between the suppression of political opponents then and now: “dissolving political parties, slapping people with Article 112 charges... It’s like arresting them and throwing them in red barrels, but they do it in a different way now.”

When My Father Was a Communist was screened last month in Korat, Songkla, and Hat Yai. It was shown in Phimai, Phattalung, and Bangkok earlier this month. It had four screenings on 10th August: in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Sakon Nakhon, and Nakhon Phanom.

From Forest to City

From Forest to City is a black-and-white drama in three parts, narrated by a woman who survived the Thammasat massacre and joined the Communist insurgency. In the first part, smoke billowing from an oil drum signifies the hundreds of suspected Communists who were burnt alive in oil barrels in the 1970s.

In part two, comparing the 6th October 1976 massacre at Thammasat University to the present day, the narrator regrets that Thailand hasn’t changed: society remains irreconcilably divided, between student protesters and the conservative establishment. Although the film is black-and-white, there are two flashes of colour: a red folding chair, and a yellow t-shirt. Thanks to Neal Ulevich’s famous photograph of a man beating a corpse with a folding chair, this single item of furniture has come to symbolise the entire Thammasat massacre. The yellow t-shirt in an otherwise black-and-white shot recalls Chai Chaiyachit and Chisanucha Kongwailap’s short film Re-presentation (ผีมะขาม ไพร่ฟ้า ประชาธิปไตย ในคืนที่ลมพัดหวน), in which the yellow t-shirts worn by monarchists are the only objects shown in colour.

In part three, From Forest to City switches gear with a documentary montage of various dramatic episodes from modern Thai history: the Thammasat massacre, armoured personnel carriers demolishing red-shirt protest camps, riot police firing water cannon at students in Siam Square, and Arnon Nampa’s Harry Potter-themed protest. In an echo of Prap Boonpan’s sadly prophetic short film The Bangkok Bourgeois Party (ความลักลั่นของงานรื่นเริง), a yellow-shirt mob is seen attacking a pro-reform protester. The montage of news footage is set incongruously to รักกันไว้เถิด (‘let’s love each other’), a Cold War propaganda song whose lyrics call for national unity.

From Forest to City was also shown in Phatthalung last year. It was screened at Bangkok University in 2023, and in that year’s online Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน).

The Circle’s Circumference

Nontawat Machai and Jakkraphan Sriwichai’s The Circle’s Circumference, a video of a performance by Nontawat, was made in memory of two murdered human-rights activists, Porlajee Rakchongcharoen and Chaiyaphum Pasae. Porlajee’s body was found in an oil drum at the bottom of a reservoir in 2019, five years after he went missing, and Chaiyaphum was shot at a military checkpoint in 2017. Thunska Pansittivorakul’s film Santikhiri Sonata (สันติคีรี โซนาตา) also refers to Chaiyaphum’s death. The Circle’s Circumference was previously shown at The 26th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 26).

100 Most Influential Movies Beyond Times

To mark its 100th issue, Indonesian film magazine Cinemags compiled a list titled 100 Most Influential Movies Beyond Times [sic] in November 2007. The list is heavily weighted towards American titles, with films from other countries relegated to ‘outside Hollywood’ sidebars. (In the UK, Total Film magazine published a similar list, The 67 Most Influential Films Ever Made, in 2009.)

The 100 most influential movies, according to Cinemags:

100. Harry Potter 1–8
99. Reservoir Dogs
98. Before Sunset / Before Sunrise
97. Born on the 4th of July
96. JFK
95. The Aviator
94. The Sixth Sense
93. Farenheit 9/11
92. United 93
91. The Graduate
90. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
89. Requiem for a Dream
88. Almost Famous
87. Million Dollar Baby
86. Braveheart
85. Kramer vs. Kramer
84. Chinatown
83. A Beautiful Mind
82. Amadeus
81. Good Will Hunting
80. Adaptation
79. Rain Man
78. Midnight Cowboy
77. Mulholland Drive
76. Ordinary People
75. 21 Grams
74. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
73. Dog Day Afternoon
72. The Lion King
71. Lost in Translation
70. Rear Window
69. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
68. Crash
67. Pretty Woman
66. The Thin Red Line
65. Mystic River
64. The Green Mile
63. Once Upon a Time in America
62. The Wizard of Oz
61. Full Metal Jacket
60. Finding Nemo
59. Gladiator
58. American History X
57. Kill Bill 1
56. Little Miss Sunshine
55. Vertigo
54. Fight Club
53. The Pianist
52. Dead Poets Society
51. Traffic
50. The Shining
49. American Beauty
48. On the Waterfront
47. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
46. Scarface
45. Blade Runner
44. Titanic
43. Ben-Hur
42. The Silence of the Lambs
41. The Last Emperor
40. Forrest Gump
39. The Shawshank Redemption
38. Saving Private Ryan
37. The Deer Hunter
36. Rocky
35. A Clockwork Orange
34. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
33. Casablanca
32. Gandhi
31. Léon
30. King Kong
29. Platoon
28. The Sound of Music
27. Dances with Wolves
26. Gosford Park
25. GoodFellas
24. Apocalypse Now
23. Indiana Jones 1–3
22. Rebel Without a Cause
21. To Kill a Mockingbird
20. It’s A Wonderful Life
19. Invasion of the Body Snatchers
18. The Lord of the Rings 1–3
17. Tootsie
16. Jaws
15. Double Indemnity
14. Aliens
13. Taxi Driver
12. Pulp Fiction
11. ET
10. Schindler’s List
9. The Matrix 1–3
8. In the Heat of the Night
7. Psycho
6. 2001
5. Raging Bull
4. Lawrence of Arabia
3. Star Wars
2. Gone with the Wind
1. The Godfather 1–2

Given that it’s a list of the most influential films — rather than the greatest films — it has some surprising entries: Finding Nemo is included, for example, though Toy Story isn’t. But Toy Story, being the first computer-animated film, is surely more influential than the later Finding Nemo?

There are more than 100 films on the list, as Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, and The Godfather are counted alongside their sequels as single entries. Also, note that Scarface is the Brian de Palma remake, Ben-Hur is the William Wyler remake, Crash is the Paul Haggis film, and Titanic is the James Cameron version.

These are the films in the Cinemags supplemental ‘outside Hollywood’ list:

• Seven Samurai
  
• My Girl
  
• Bad Education
  
• Life Is Beautiful
  
• City of God
  
• The Brotherhood of War
  
• Oldboy
  
• Downfall
  
• Battle Royale
  
• Cinema Paradiso
  
• Infernal Affairs
  
• Carandiru
  
• Malena
  
• In the Mood for Love
  
• Spirited Away
  
• Run Lola Run
  
• Trainspotting
  
• Goodbye, Lenin!
  
• 2046
  
• Amélie
  
• Hero
  
• A Fish Called Wanda
  
• Y tu mamá también
  
• The Ring
  
• Das Boot
  

Note that My Girl is the 2003 Thai film (แฟนฉัน), not the 1991 Hollywood movie.

Antipsychotics

After interviewing his father in his recent documentary When My Father Was a Communist (เมื่อพ่อผมเป็นคอมมิวนิสต์), Vichart Somkaew has turned the camera on himself for his new documentary short Antipsychotics. At the start of the film, Vichart reveals that he suffers from depression. In a voiceover, he describes his symptoms, which include hallucinations and feelings of paranoia. On screen, we see profiles of various antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs, and their possible side effects, accompanied by stock footage.

The director also recounts the traumatic experience that he feels led to his condition: the humiliating hazing rituals and violent punishments he endured during his conscription. “I drew a red card and was drafted into the military service”, he says, before describing the physical and mental harm he was subjected to.

In Thailand, all twenty-one-year-old men must take part in a draft lottery. Like the young soldier interviewed in Nontawat Numbenchapol’s documentary Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง), Vichart picked a red ticket, which means two years of compulsory military service.

There have been occasional news reports of cadets being injured — and worse — during military training sessions, though there is less coverage of the potential psychological toll that Vichart describes. At the end of his powerful and ultimately optimistic film, he argues that conscription should be replaced by voluntary service.

Thailand International LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival 2025

The Thailand International LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival 2025 will run from 2nd to 7th September at Icon Siam’s Cineconic cinema in Bangkok. One of TILFF’s highlights will be a complete retrospective of films by Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung, the Hong Kong director better known as Scud.

All ten of Scud’s films will be shown, including the sexually explicit Love Actually... Sucks! (愛很爛), Utopians (同流合烏), Apostles (十三門徒), and Thirty Years of Adonis (三十儿立). Utopians will be screened on 2nd September, and Thirty Years of Adonis on 4th September, both followed by Q&As with the director. Apostles and Love Actually... Sucks! are both screening on 6th September.

There will also be a rare opportunity to see some of Thai artist Oat Montien’s experimental short films, which are being shown on 7th September in a programme titled Lettres d’amour (จดหมายรัก). The programme includes Mochit, which was made for the 7th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังทดลองกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 7).

To desaturate the colour palette in Mochit, Oat mixed his own semen into the developing fluid while processing the film, making him the third Thai artist to use semen in his work. The others are Kullathida Krajangkul, who used semen from ten donors to paint a map of Khon Kaen for her installation เพราะเสร็จ จึงเจริญ (‘because it’s finished, it’s prosperous’); and Kosit Juntaratip, whose abstract painting Copulate with Love is labelled as “Ejaculation on canvas (Kosit’s spermatozoa)” at MAIIAM in Chiang Mai.

Midnight Talk

The second annual Phimailongweek (พิมายฬองวีค) experimental arts festival is now under way at Phimai, in Korat province. The festival includes a series of late-night film screenings and panel discussions at various locations around the ancient town, and the highlight so far has been มรดกของการเซนเซอร์ ผลกระทบ จากความขัดแย้ง และเสรีภาพในการสร้างภาพยนตร์ (‘the legacy of censorship and the impact of conflict on freedom for filmmaking’), a Midnight Talk discussion at Victory Gate on 2nd August with directors Tanwarin Sukkhapisit and Ing K., both of whom have made films that were previously banned in Thailand.

Tanwarin’s Insects in the Backyard (อินเซคอินเดอะแบ็คยาร์ด) was banned in 2010, and Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) was banned two years later, and both directors fought long and ultimately successful legal campaigns against the censors. I interviewed Tanwarin and Ing for Thai Cinema Uncensored, and the book discusses the censorship of their films in more detail.

The Midnight Talk discussion focused on the impact of the 2008 Film and Video Act and the two directors’ reactions to their films being censored. Tanwarin described how the film industry fought for the introduction of the new regulation (“ซึ่งเราก็ต่อสู้กันมาอย่างยาวนานนะกว่าจะได้ พ.ร.บ. ภาพยนตร์ปี”), and said that the decision to ban her film had made her cry (“ซึ่งตอนนั้นรีแอคก็คือก็เสียใจก็ร้องไห้นะฮะ”). In contrast, Ing said that when an Administrative Court judge dismissed her film and rejected her appeal, she was absolutely enraged (“อาจจะใกล้เป็นผู้ก่อการร้ายมากที่สุดในชีวิตนะ”).

Interestingly, Tanwarin explained that she had specifically conceived Insects in the Backyard to be the first film to be rated ‘20’, the highest classification in the rating system. Her intention was to take advantage of the adult rating by making an explicit film, though she hadn’t expected it to be banned outright (“พอเราเป็นคนทําเนี่ยเราก็วางแผนชัดเจนนะว่าหนังเราจะต้องได้เป็นหนังไทยเรื่องแรกที่ได้เรตติ้ง ‘20’... แต่เราก็ไม่นึกว่ามันจะเลยเถิดจนถึง: อืม ห้ามฉายโดนแบนนะครับ”).

Tanwarin also recalled how, when the ban was announced, she was criticised online for making what many considered a ‘sissy’ film. The bitter irony, she said, was that people were opposed to the film because they didn’t understand transsexuality, which the film would have given them a better understanding of (“เป็นเพราะความไม่เข้าใจ ซึ่งมันก็ตรงกับสิ่งที่เราต้องการนําเสนออยู่ในหนัง”).

Ultimately, Insects in the Backyard was granted a reprieve by the Administrative Court in 2015. (It went on general release in 2017.) The court ruled that a three-second hardcore clip must be cut out, a result that Tanwarin described as both a defeat and a victory (“เราแพ้แต่เราชนะ”) — technically, she lost her appeal for an uncut release, though she saw it as winning the right to show her film, which was no longer branded as immoral.

Ing’s battle with the censors took even longer than Tanwarin’s: the ban on Shakespeare Must Die was finally lifted by the Supreme Court last year, and its theatrical release came a few months later. (It has since been screened at Burapha University and Chiang Mai University.) She explained that freedom of expression is essential for artists, and should not be suppressed (“ไม่ควรมีใครมาปิดกั้นความคิดเราไม่ให้เราสามารถพูดในสิ่งที่เราอยากพูดได้”).

Ing also argued that the defamation law is too strict, as the descendants of military leaders have used it to block films about Thailand’s political history. She cited two aborted projects — Euthana Mukdasanit’s biopic of Phibun Songkhram (2482); and จอมพล (‘marshal’), Banjong Kosallawat’s drama about a fictional character resembling Sarit Thanarat — both of which were abandoned following legal threats.

The Midnight Talk event was the latest of numerous panel discussions and seminars on the subject of Thai film censorship. จาก YouTube ถึงแสงศตวรรษ การเซ็นเซอร์สื่อในยุครัฐบาล คมช (‘media censorship from YouTube to Syndromes and a Century’) and From Censorship to Rating System (จากเซ็นเซอร์สู่เรตติ้ง) were both held in 2007. Ing and Tanwarin took part in Art, Politics, and Censorship in 2012. These were followed by Freedom on Film (สิทธิหนังไทย) in 2013, อย่าจองเวรจองกรรม ซึ่งกันและกันเลย (‘let’s not hold grudges against each other’) in 2015, Freedom Thai Film (กู้อิสรภาพหนังไทย) in 2018, and Tearing Down the Wall (ทลายกำแพง) in 2023.

Shakespeare Must Die was shown after the Midnight Talk discussion. Then, in the early hours of 3rd August, it was followed by two political documentaries: Nontawat Numbenchapol’s Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง) and Uruphong Raksasad’s Paradox Democracy, part of the festival’s Phimailongdoo (พิมายฬองดูววว) programme of overnight screenings.

Shakespeare Must Die

Shakespeare Must Die is a Thai adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Pisarn Pattanapeeradej in the lead role. The play is presented in two parallel versions: a production in period costume, and a contemporary political interpretation. The period version is faithful to Shakespeare’s original, though it also breaks the fourth wall, with cutaways to the audience and an interval outside the theatre (featuring a cameo by the director).

In the contemporary sequences, Macbeth is reimagined as Mekhdeth, a prime minister facing a crisis. Street protesters shout “ok pbai!” (‘get out!’), and the protests are infiltrated by assassins listed in the credits as ‘men in black’. Ing has downplayed any direct link to Thai politics, though “Thaksin ok pbai!” was the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s rallying cry against Thaksin Shinawatra, and ‘men in black’ were blamed for instigating violence in 2010. Another satirical line in the script — “Dear Leader brings happy-ocracy!” — predicts Prayut Chan-o-cha’s propaganda song Returning Happiness to the Thai Kingdom (คืนความสุขให้ประเทศไทย).

The parallels between Mekhdeth and Thaksin highlight the politically-motivated nature of the ban imposed on the film. Ironically, the project was initially funded by the Ministry of Culture, during Abhisit Vejjajiva’s premiership: it received a grant from the ไทยเข้มแข็ง (‘strong Thailand’) stimulus package. The Abhisit government was only too happy to greenlight a script criticising Thaksin, though by the time the film was finished, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was in power, and her administration was somewhat less disposed to this anti-Thaksin satire, hence the ban.

Although the film was made more than a decade ago, its message is arguably more timely than ever, as Thaksin’s influence over Thai politics continues. He returned to Thailand in 2023, and his Pheu Thai Party is now leading a coalition with the political wing of the military junta.

The film’s climax, a recreation of the 6th October 1976 massacre, is its most controversial sequence. A photograph by Neal Ulevich, taken during the massacre, shows a vigilante preparing to hit a corpse with a chair, and Shakespeare Must Die restages the incident. A hanging body (symbolising Shakespeare himself) is repeatedly hit with a chair, though rather than dwelling on the violence, Ing cuts to reaction shots of the crowd, which (as in 1976) resembles a baying mob.

Ing didn’t mince her words in her Thai Cinema Uncensored interview, describing the censors as “a bunch of trembling morons with the power of life and death over our films.” Thai Cinema Uncensored also includes an insider’s account from a member of the appeals committee, who said he was obliged by his department head to vote against releasing the film: “I had to vote no, because it was an instruction from my director. But if I could have voted freely, I would have voted yes.”

Boundary

Boundary documents the 2008 conflict between Thailand and Cambodia when the disputed Preah Vihear Temple was exploited for nationalist political gain. The issue was so sensitive that the director couldn’t even reveal his identity while filming at the temple. As he told me in his Thai Cinema Uncensored interview: “I could not tell anyone in Cambodia that I’m Thai, because it would be hard to shoot. I had to tell everybody I’m Chinese-American... My name was Thomas in Cambodia.”

The festival screening is especially timely, as another border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is currently taking place. At a time when the Cambodian government is inflaming tensions, and nationalist groups in Thailand are exploiting the political crisis, Boundary represents a plea for de-escalation on both sides, and a reminder of the dangers of history repeating itself.

Boundary is composed largely of silent, still sequences depicting the serenity of rural life, as a counterpoint to the fierce border dispute surrounding the temple. Nontawat begins by interviewing Aod, a young soldier, in his home village. Idyllic sequences of novice monks bathing and Aod’s father fishing are contrasted with Aod describing his military conscription and the army’s crackdown against red-shirt protesters in 2010.

After footage of the Thai military firing at their Cambodian counterparts near Preah Vihear, we see damage to houses and a school close to the temple, caused by bombs and gunfire from Cambodian troops. Finally, at the end of the film, Nontawat’s camera explores the temple itself, the ruined Khmer compound that has been the subject of such bloodshed and ultra-nationalism.

Boundary was previously shown at Lido Connect and Warehouse 30 in Bangkok in 2019. Its most recent screenings were at Chiang Mai University, the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, and Thammasat University in Bangkok. It has been subject to censorship twice: it was cut before its theatrical release in 2013, and a screening in Chonburi was prohibited by the military in 2015.

Paradox Democracy

Paradox Democracy documents the recent student protest movement, and features clips from rally speeches by Arnon Nampa and other protest leaders, intercut with extracts from The Revolutionist (คือผู้อภิวัฒน์), a play about Pridi Banomyong staged by the Crescent Moon theatre group in 2020. The film’s working title was Paradox October, and it includes footage shot at the 6th October 1976 commemorative exhibition at Thammasat University in 2020. It was previously shown at The 28th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 28), and at Chiang Mai University.

What the Doc!

What the Doc! — The International Documentary Film Festival Thailand (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์ สารคดีนานาชาติ แห่งประเทศไทย) — will take place in Bangkok from 22nd to 31st August. Organised by Documentary Club, the festival includes screenings at House Samyan, Century Sukhumvit (just around the corner from Dateline Bangkok HQ), and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

The opening film, Thunska Pansittivorakul’s new documentary Isan Odyssey (อีสานอำพราง), will be shown at House on 22nd August. It has been classified ‘15’, marking the first time in almost twenty years that Thunska has submitted one of his films to the Thai ratings board.

One of the festival’s highlights is an Apichatpong Weerasethakul retrospective, a rare chance to see eight short films by Thailand’s leading director and video artist. 0116643225059, Thirdworld (เกาะกายสิทธิ์), Malee and the Boy (มาลีและเด็กชาย), and Luminous People (คนเรืองแสง) will be shown at House on 23rd August, and at Century on 31st August. A Letter to Uncle Boonmee (จดหมายถึงลุงบุญมี), Cactus River (โขงแล้งน้ำ), Vapour, and Ashes will be screened at Century on 23rd August, and at House on 24th August.

A programme of short films by Chulayarnnon Siriphol will be shown at BACC on 24th August, followed by a Q&A with Chulayarnnon, as part of WTD’s Doc Talk Day! event. The five films are: Vanishing Horizon of the Sea, Birth of Golden Snail (กำเนิดหอยทากทอง), Myth of Modernity, The Internationale (แองเตอร์นาซิอองนาล), and ANG48 (เอเอ็นจี48).

There have been three previous retrospectives of Apichatpong’s short films in Thailand: Apichatpong on Video Works in 2008, Indy Spirit Project in 2010, and Apichatpong Weekend in 2017. Thunska, Apichatpong, and Chulayarnnon were all interviewed in Thai Cinema Uncensored.

Phimailongweek 2Midnight Monsoon

The second annual Phimailongweek (พิมายฬองวีค) experimental arts festival will take place at Phimai, in Korat province, from 1st to 15th August. The theme of this year’s event is Midnight Monsoon (ภาคมรสุมฝัน), and it includes a programme of overnight film screenings at various locations around the ancient town, titled Phimailongdoo: Midnight Screening (พิมายฬองดูววว: ภาพยนตร์เที่ยงคืน).

Undoubtedly the highlight of the festival will be on 2nd August at Victory Gate: screenings of previously censored films, a provocative recent documentary, and a discussion about film censorship. This session will begin with three short films by Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, including I’m Fine (สบายดีค่ะ), for which she sat in a cage next to Democracy Monument in a commentary on political freedom.

Midnight Talk

Tanwarin will then take part in มรดกของการเซนเซอร์ ผลกระทบ จากความขัดแย้ง และเสรีภาพในการสร้างภาพยนตร์ (‘the legacy of censorship and the impact of conflict on freedom for filmmaking’), a Midnight Talk discussion with fellow director Ing K. Nontawat Numbenchapol was originally scheduled to appear, though he is unable to attend; Tanwarin, Ing, and Nontawat have all made films that were previously banned in Thailand, and I interviewed all three directors for Thai Cinema Uncensored.

Ing’s Shakespeare Must Die (เชคสเปียร์ต้องตาย) will be shown after the discussion. After midnight, in the early hours of 3rd August, it will be followed by two political documentaries: Nontawat’s Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง) and Uruphong Raksasad’s Paradox Democracy.

Shakespeare Must Die

Shakespeare Must Die was banned by the Ministry of Culture in 2012, and the ban was upheld by the Administrative Court in 2017. Ing’s battle with the censors, documented in her film Censor Must Die (เซ็นเซอร์ต้องตาย), went all the way to the Supreme Court, which finally lifted the ban last year. After its belated theatrical release, it has since been screened at Burapha University and Chiang Mai University.

Shakespeare Must Die is a Thai adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Pisarn Pattanapeeradej in the lead role. The play is presented in two parallel versions: a production in period costume, and a contemporary political interpretation. The period version is faithful to Shakespeare’s original, though it also breaks the fourth wall, with cutaways to the audience and an interval outside the theatre (featuring a cameo by the director).

In the contemporary sequences, Macbeth is reimagined as Mekhdeth, a prime minister facing a crisis. Street protesters shout “ok pbai!” (‘get out!’), and the protests are infiltrated by assassins listed in the credits as ‘men in black’. Ing has downplayed any direct link to Thai politics, though “Thaksin ok pbai!” was the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s rallying cry against Thaksin Shinawatra, and ‘men in black’ were blamed for instigating violence in 2010. Another satirical line in the script — “Dear Leader brings happy-ocracy!” — predicts Prayut Chan-o-cha’s propaganda song Returning Happiness to the Thai Kingdom (คืนความสุขให้ประเทศไทย).

The parallels between Mekhdeth and Thaksin highlight the politically-motivated nature of the ban imposed on the film. Ironically, the project was initially funded by the Ministry of Culture, during Abhisit Vejjajiva’s premiership: it received a grant from the ไทยเข้มแข็ง (‘strong Thailand’) stimulus package. The Abhisit government was only too happy to greenlight a script criticising Thaksin, though by the time the film was finished, Thaksin’s sister Yingluck was in power, and her administration was somewhat less disposed to this anti-Thaksin satire, hence the ban.

Although the film was made more than a decade ago, its message is arguably more timely than ever, as Thaksin’s influence over Thai politics continues. He returned to Thailand in 2023, and his Pheu Thai Party is now leading a coalition with the political wing of the military junta.

The film’s climax, a recreation of the 6th October 1976 massacre, is its most controversial sequence. A photograph by Neal Ulevich, taken during the massacre, shows a vigilante preparing to hit a corpse with a chair, and Shakespeare Must Die restages the incident. A hanging body (symbolising Shakespeare himself) is repeatedly hit with a chair, though rather than dwelling on the violence, Ing cuts to reaction shots of the crowd, which (as in 1976) resembles a baying mob.

Ing didn’t mince her words in her Thai Cinema Uncensored interview, describing the censors as “a bunch of trembling morons with the power of life and death over our films.” Thai Cinema Uncensored also includes an insider’s account from a member of the appeals committee, who said he was obliged by his department head to vote against releasing the film: “I had to vote no, because it was an instruction from my director. But if I could have voted freely, I would have voted yes.”

Boundary

Boundary documents the 2008 conflict between Thailand and Cambodia when the disputed Preah Vihear Temple was exploited for nationalist political gain. The issue was so sensitive that the director couldn’t even reveal his identity while filming at the temple. As he told me in his Thai Cinema Uncensored interview: “I could not tell anyone in Cambodia that I’m Thai, because it would be hard to shoot. I had to tell everybody I’m Chinese-American... My name was Thomas in Cambodia.”

The festival screening is especially timely, as another border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia is currently taking place. At a time when the Cambodian government is inflaming tensions, and nationalist groups in Thailand are exploiting the political crisis, Boundary represents a plea for de-escalation on both sides, and a reminder of the dangers of history repeating itself.

Boundary is composed largely of silent, still sequences depicting the serenity of rural life, as a counterpoint to the fierce border dispute surrounding the temple. Nontawat begins by interviewing Aod, a young soldier, in his home village. Idyllic sequences of novice monks bathing and Aod’s father fishing are contrasted with Aod describing his military conscription and the army’s crackdown against red-shirt protesters in 2010.

After footage of the Thai military firing at their Cambodian counterparts near Preah Vihear, we see damage to houses and a school close to the temple, caused by bombs and gunfire from Cambodian troops. Finally, at the end of the film, Nontawat’s camera explores the temple itself, the ruined Khmer compound that has been the subject of such bloodshed and ultra-nationalism.

Boundary was previously shown at Lido Connect and Warehouse 30 in Bangkok in 2019. Its most recent screenings were at Chiang Mai University, the Thai Film Archive in Salaya, and Thammasat University in Bangkok. It has been subject to censorship twice: it was cut before its theatrical release in 2013, and a screening in Chonburi was prohibited by the military in 2015.

Paradox Democracy

Paradox Democracy documents the recent student protest movement, and features clips from rally speeches by Arnon Nampa and other protest leaders, intercut with extracts from The Revolutionist (คือผู้อภิวัฒน์), a play about Pridi Banomyong staged by the Crescent Moon theatre group in 2020. The film’s working title was Paradox October, and it includes footage shot at the 6th October 1976 commemorative exhibition at Thammasat University in 2020. It was previously shown at The 28th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 28), and at Chiang Mai University.

When My Father Was a Communist

Vichart Somkaew’s new documentary When My Father Was a Communist is another highlight of the festival, screening on 8th August at Phimai Wittaya School. Vichart interviewed his father, Sawang, and other former members of the Communist Party of Thailand, and the film is a valuable social history. The veterans explain their decisions to join the CPT, and describe their experiences in the forests of Phatthalung.

When My Father Was a Communist is also a record of the state’s violent suppression of Communist insurgents, hundreds (potentially thousands) of whom were burned in oil drums in 1972. These so-called ‘red barrel’ deaths were most prevalent in Phatthalung, and have never been officially investigated. (The names of the victims are listed before the film’s end credits.)

There have been other documentaries about the red barrels, but When My Father Was a Communist stands out for Vichart’s close connections to the subject. This is a deeply personal project, as he was born in Phatthalung, and he is documenting the memories of his elderly father.

The film notes that the repressive atmosphere of the 1970s has not disappeared. One speaker says that the political system has barely changed since the military dictatorship after the 1976 coup. Another makes a direct comparison between the suppression of political opponents then and now: “dissolving political parties, slapping people with Article 112 charges... It’s like arresting them and throwing them in red barrels, but they do it in a different way now.”

When My Father Was a Communist was first shown at the Us coffee shop in Phatthalung on 10th July. It was also screened at Vongchavalitkul University in Korat on 23rd July, A.E.Y. Space in Songkla on 26th July, and Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai on 27th July.

Coup d’état

On 1st August, a selection of short films by local filmmakers will be shown at Victory Gate. These will include Natthapol Kitwarasai’s Coup d’état, a dialogue-free, black-and-white film in which a soldier rummages through an old man’s meagre possessions. The man watches impassively, apparently oblivious to the trespassing soldier, and spends his time sleeping and swimming, which symbolise freedom for the director. Although the drama is allegorical, the film opens with photographs of the military leaders who instigated Thailand’s many coups. Coup d’état was previously shown in the online Short Film Marathon 26 (หนังสั้นมาราธอน 26).

The Body Craves Impact as Love Bursts

Wattanapume Laisuwanchai’s The Body Craves Impact as Love Bursts (ร่างกายอยากปะทะ เพราะรักมันปะทุ) will also be screened at Victory Gate, on 14th August. The video features images of a man and woman tantalisingly close and facing each other, yet separated. As the director explained in his artist’s statement, the installation was made in solidarity with the rapper Elevenfinger, who is serving a prison sentence for possession of ping-pong bombs used in anti-government protests: “I have visited him and witnessed the despair not only affecting him and his partner but also their families and relatives. This situation mirrors the plight of other political prisoners”.

The video ends dramatically with flashing images and footage of fireworks, filmed at Thalugaz protests in 2021. It was first shown as an installation at the Procession of Dystopia exhibition last year. It has also been screened at The 7th Bangkok Experimental Film Festival (เทศกาลหนังทดลองกรุงเทพฯ ครั้งที่ 7), Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, and Cinemine/d.

No Exorcism Film

Another recent short film, Komtouch Napattaloong’s No Exorcism Film, will be shown on 8th August at the Local.Gen cafe. In this experimenal film, a robotic voiceover narrates a dream that includes a short silent video clip of Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul in 2020 reading a manifesto calling for reform of the monarchy. No Exorcism Film was previously shown at BEFF7, The 28th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 28), Wildtype 2024, and in the online Short Film Marathon 28 (หนังสั้นมาราธอน 28). It will also be screened next month in Udon Thani.