So excited to share that our new film project, Ray of Light (working title) with Tanida Hantaweewatana as writer and produced by Awat Ratanapintha has been selected from over 300 submissions! We’ll be joining the TorinoFilmLab TFL Next – Feature Film 2026 for a script development workshop based on our treatment.

We’ve been quietly working on this for over a year. A massive thank you to THACCA and the Ministry of Culture for the script development grant that kept our energy up. Big thanks also to Thaipitch, Raymond, Don, and P’Nuch for selecting us for Cannes, which really sparked our fire to submit our project internationally again.

Without that early support, we wouldn’t be here today telling ourselves, “It’s time to get this done.” I really hope the new government continues to consistently support Thai cinema.

Lastly, huge thanks to our interns Ping, Tarntham, and Pizza for brainstorming and bouncing ideas around with us!

Stay tuned!

More info…

The case of 3-year-old Nong Chompoo, who was found dead on a Mukdahan mountain six years ago, will be the subject of the first true-crime documentary by Netflix Thailand, with her uncle-in-law, the convicted killer, making an unexpected onscreen appearance.

Netflix Thailand unveiled its 2026 programme lineup on Friday night, closing with a documentary titled Chompoo: Lost & Forgotten.

What surprised the audience most was the screen appearance of Chaiphol “Uncle Phol” Wipha. His interview footage was believed to have been filmed before the Court of Appeal sentenced him to 26 years in jail in August last year for the death of Orawan “Nong Chompoo” Wongsricha in the northeastern province in 2020.

He is appealing the ruling to the Supreme Court, which has denied his bail request.

The toddler disappeared from her home in Kok Kork village in Dong Luang district of Mukdahan on May 11, 2020. She was found dead three days later on Phu Lek Fai mountain in Phu Pha Yon national park, about two kilometres from her home.

The Court of Appeal found Uncle Phol guilty of premeditated murder, child abduction and concealing a body.

The appeal court upheld the lower court’s acquittal of Chaiphol’s wife, Somporn “Pa Taen” Lappho, the sister of Nong Chompoo’s mother.

‘What makes a suspect turn into a celebrity?’

When Nong Chompoo vanished from her remote village, the police investigation quickly became a national spectacle. Overnight, the accused was thrust into the spotlight.

Uncle Phol consistently insisted on his innocence, and many who followed the case believed him, particularly his tearful TV interviews.

At one point, he became a minor celebrity, hired as a product presenter and featured in a music video by a famous Isan folk singer. He and Pa Taen reportedly received large donations from their “fans” and ran a YouTube channel with more than 350,000 followers.

“The film traces how a criminal investigation became a cultural spectacle and examines the forces that propelled it,” Netflix said.

Co-produced by Singapore-based Beach House Pictures and Thai Film Works, the documentary will also feature Trynh Phoraksa, a well-known criminologist specialising in psychology and criminal behaviour.

The release date has not yet been announced.

According to Netflix Thailand, the country’s entertainment industry has grown rapidly, and Thai creators’ ability to craft compelling content has gained global recognition, with notable titles such as Hunger, Master of the House and Mad Unicorn.

The 2026 content lineup, it said, reflects both evolving viewer behaviour and the growth of Thailand’s creative sector. Last year, more than 90% of Netflix viewers in Thailand chose to watch Thai content, underscoring its popularity, Netflix Thailand said.

Bangkok Post…

The Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) has officially unveiled its exclusive lineup for the TCCF Pitching showcase. The competition was incredibly fierce this year, with nearly 700 submissions from 44 countries, but only 94 outstanding projects were selected to participate in the event from November 4 to 7!

We are absolutely thrilled to share that our Thai and Singapore joint production, Ray of Light, successfully broke through the intense competition! It has been officially selected as one of only 20 feature film projects to be showcased in the highly anticipated Project segment.

The dedicated team behind this project includes:

• Director: Nontawat Numbenchapol

• Producers: Awat Ratanapintha, Tan Bee Thiam, and Looi Wan Ping

• Writer: T. Hantaweewatana

• Production Companies: Mobile Lab Project and 13 Little Pictures

This year TCCF is heavily emphasizing the global trend of international collaboration. The selection of Ray of Light marks a major milestone, proving the immense potential and international appeal of the film. Please continue to send your support and stay tuned as we take this exciting journey to the global market!

The Thai psychological thriller and romance drama film project, Ray of Light, directed by Nontawat Numbenchapol, has achieved another major milestone by being officially selected for the highly esteemed QCinema Project Market (QPM) in the Philippines.

As the industry wing of the QCinema International Film Festival, QPM is celebrated for championing bold voices, distinctive genres, and globally resonant stories. This year the selection process was highly competitive, with 71 submissions from across Southeast Asia. Ray of Light is honored to be chosen as one of only 20 exclusive film projects, and one of just eight selected from neighboring countries outside the Philippines.

Being recognized on this platform is a significant step forward, elevating the film to new heights on the international stage. Please continue to follow and support the journey of Ray of Light.

Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) has unveiled a bumper line-up of 94 projects to take part in its TCCF Pitching showcase, set to run November 4-7.

This year’s lineup features several cross-border adaptations of renowned IPs and international co-productions with strong market potential and international appeal, reflecting an ongoing global trend.

These include Taiwan Travelogue, a series adapted from Yang Shuang-zi’s award-winning novel of the same name; The Ones I Killed And The Ones Who Killed Me, a series adapted from Akira Higashiyama’s acclaimed novel; LOMÁ, a documentary from Berlinale Teddy award winner Huang Hui-chen; and animation A Banquet For Hungry Ghosts, adapted from Asian American food writer Ying Chang Compestine’s young adult horror story collection.

Some 56 titles will be showcased in the Project segment, including 20 feature films, 10 projects apiece for series, animations and documentaries as well as a further six series with the theme of “If Romance Comes Again”.

Scroll down for feature film Project titles

Among the highlights from the Project segment are Spent Bullets, adapted from Tetsuya Terao’s bestselling novel by Taiwanese filmmaker Henry Tsai; Goodbye My Love, Calendar Studios’ Taiwanese version of Korean drama Do It One More Time; Diary Of Summer from Japan’s Robot Communications, the production company behind Godzilla Minus One; documentary Atomic Paradise, headed by Sally Aitken, a two-time Emmy nominee; and drama series Second Woman, winner of both the FriDay Video Original Story Award and TVBS Storytelling Impact Grant Award in the Story to Screen segment of TCCF in 2023.

Several titles from the Project segment have also made it into this year’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, including two series (Taiwan Travelogueand The Ones I Killed And The Ones Who Killed Me) and four feature films (Burning Blossoms, Spent Bullets, Soul Lantern and Spring’s Grocery).

A further 38 projects of original published texts will be presented for IP adaptations in the Story segment.

Highlights include A Sketch Of A Female Serial Killer: Taiwan’s Only Female Death Row Prisoner And The Murders That Shocked a Nation, winner of the Taipei International Book Exhibition Grand Prize in the non-fiction category; Bodacious! Archdemons and Lifesaver Deployed, both of which are also selected for the upcoming Busan Story Market; and The Taste Of Brown Sugar, winner of the 2025 Taipei International Book Exhibition Grand Prize in the children’s book and young adult novels category.

TCCF Pitching received nearly 700 submissions from 44 countries this year and is set to be held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. Aside from Taiwan, the top submitting countries were Japan, Thailand, the US, South Korea and Singapore. International submissions and co-productions involving Taiwan accounted for 60% of the entries, underscoring TCCF’s growing recognition on the global stage and a trend of cross-border collaboration in the content industry.

TCCF Pitching Project titles (feature films)

Burning Blossoms (Tai-Japan)
EP. Hitoshi Endo
Pro. Nobu Awata
Wri. Su I-Hsuan
Prodco. Suz Creative Studio

Diary Of Summer (Japan)
Dir. Remi Noda
Pro. Yusuke Yagi
Wri. Remi Noda
Prodco. Robot Communications

Fortune Seekers (Thai)
Dir. Yanyong Kuruangkura
EP./Pro. Nakarin Narkpreecha
Wri. Ploibutsara Phattrapornphisit
Prodco. Bebrave Entertainment Hub

Game Never Over (Tai)
Dir. Sean Chuang
EPs. Stefano Centini, Chang Chuti
Pro. Hung Sung-Ju
Wri. Ho Shing-Ming
Prodco. Volos Films

Goodbye My Love (Tai)
Dir. Yin Chen-Hao
EP./Pro. Jin Pai-Lunn
Wri. Ryan Tu
Prodco. Calendar Studios

Kamol (Thai)
Pro. Supatcha Thipsena
Wri. Chartchai Ketnust, Kong Pahurak
Prodco. White Light Studio

Love Letters From Tomorrow (Tai-Japan-S Kor)
EP. Peter Choe
Pros. Hsieh Yi-Lin, Ianne Cha
Wri. Yossef K. & Orign Pictures, Anne Wang
Prodco. Yoosonn Entertainment, Blintn

Midnight Express (Japan-HK-Thai-Malay-India-Uzbek-Turk-Greece-It-Fr-Sp-Port)
EP. Yamaguchi Shin
Pros. Abe Yoko, Sekiguchi Mio
Wri. Uchida Eiji, Mineo Kento
Prodco. Knockonwood

Mother Tongue (Japan-Tai)
Dir./Wri. Fu Tien-Yu
EP. Shinji Ogawa
Pro. Shoko Miyamori
Prodco. Bridgehead Co.

Mother’s Neck (Sing-Tai)
Dir. Yc Tom Lee
EPs. Jordan Lim, Charlyn Ng
Prod. Charlyn Ng
Wri. Nicholas Wang
Prodco. Juo Studios, Kusu Films

Naked In Glendale (US-China)
Pros. Jane Zheng, Julia Xu
Wri. Haohao Yan
Prodcos. Seesaw Productions, Q&A Entertainment

One Fine Day (Malay-Tai)
Dir. Tan Seng Kiat
EP. Sylvia Chang
Pros. Elyce Chin, Lim Shu Jia, E.N. Lee
Wri. Leong Siew Hong
Prodcos. One Fine Day Production House, Sunshine And Moonlight

Pivot (Tai-Turk-Ger-Serb)
Dir. Melisa Önel
Pros. Alara Hamamcıoğlu, Wesley Ko
Wri. Feride Çiçekoğlu
Prodcos. Awesomework S Production, Vigo Film, Aniden Film, Digitalkraft, Electric Sheep

Ray Of Light (Thai-Sing)
Dir. Nontawat Numbenchapol
Pros. Awat Ratanapintha, Tan Bee Thiam, Looi Wan Ping
Wri. T. Hantaweewatana
Prodcos. Mobile Lab Project, 13 Little Pictures

Seoul Story (S Kor)
EP. Summer Noh
Pro. Mark Brazeal
Wri. Kim Taeyang
Prodco. Milkyway Cinema

Soul Lantern (Tai)
Dir. Danny Tseng
EP. Lester Hsi
Pro. Fiona Hu
Wri. Jen-Fang Wang
Prodco. D-Day Pictures

Spent Bullets (Tai-US)
Dir. Henry Tsai
Pro. Jacqueline W. Liu
Wri. Henry Tsai, Terao Tetsuya
Prodco. Each Other Films

Spring’s Grocery (Tai-Indo)
Dir. Pan Ke Yin
EPs. Janice Chua, Cora Yim
Pro. Holly Chan
Wri. Aurora Lee

Prodco. Neverland Entertainment

The Daughter (Tai-HK)
Dir./Wri. Guan Tian
Pros. Patrick Mao Huang, Vivian Bao, Ding Ningyuan
Prodco. Flash Forward Entertainment, Uluka Productions

The Ghost Has A Rifle (Indo)
Dir./Wri. Iqbal Fadly
Pros. George Timothy, Siera Tamihardja
Wri. Cecille Christophia
Prodco. Creative Goods

Screen Daily

The Philippines‘ QCinema Project Market (QPM), the industry wing of QCinema International Film Festival, has unveiled its lineup of 20 selected film projects for its third edition, chosen from 71 submissions across Southeast Asia.

The slate comprises 12 projects from the Philippines and eight from neighboring countries, showcasing what organizers describe as bold voices, distinctive genres, and globally resonant stories.

Several QPM alumni are already making their mark on the international circuit. Malaysian auteur Woo Ming Jin’s “The Fox King” is set to world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this month, underscoring the market’s role as an incubator for globally competitive works. Alumni also include Dương Diệu Linh’s “Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” winner of the grand prize at Venice Critics’ Week, and Loeloe Hendra’s “Tale of the Land,” which earned the Fipresci Prize at Busan.

“QPM is not just a platform — it’s a bridge,” said QCinema industry head Liza Diño. “By connecting Southeast Asian stories to the wider world, we are giving filmmakers the visibility and access they need to secure funding, partners, and distribution.”

The regional projects span diverse genres and themes. Singapore’s “Penumbra,” directed by Russell Morton and produced by Sophia Sim and Jeremy Chua, follows a man on the run who washes up on a floating fish farm with no means of escape, where he encounters mysterious occupants. From Thailand comes Nontawat Numbenchapol’s “Ray of Light,” a class-divided story set on a present-day film set styled after 1960s glamour, where a puppet-like star actress and an unseen lighting technician form a forbidden bond.

Cambodia’s “Romdoul, the Evening Fragrance,” directed by Lomorpich Rithy, tells the intertwined story of three generations of Cambodian women in a country still haunted by war and silence. Singapore’s 11th-century period fantasy “Strange Root,” directed by Lam Li Shuen and Mark Chua, features a yam-born demigod cast aside when a shipwrecked beast reawakens islanders’ lost desires. Malaysia’s “The Willing,” from director Joon Goh, follows an Indonesian migrant teen forced into underground fights and a schoolgirl trapped by her volatile mother who find sanctuary in each other.

Thailand’s “Ghost of the Currents,” directed by Patiparn Boontarig, centers on a man returning to his Mekong riverside village after a devastating flood, where villagers blame a vengeful River Ghost for the disaster. Vietnam’s “The River Knows Our Names,” directed by Mai Huyền Chi, explores life on the undocumented floating homes of the Mekong through a little girl’s birthday wish. Myanmar’s “When the World is Paused,” from director Han Thit Htoo Aung, spans from 2019 to 2025 as Than Sin falls into a coma before confessing his feelings to Nyein and must find her upon waking.

The Philippine slate showcases the country’s filmmaking diversity. Glenn Barit’s “Luzonensis and Floresiensis” presents two prehistoric hominids from the Philippines and Indonesia meeting as migrant workers in the land of colonizers. Jaime Pacena II’s “Ozzy and Onie” follows two star-crossed lovers in 1996 Manila torn between faith, family, and a collapsing system. Carl Joseph E. Papa’s “Sentinel” connects five lives grappling with fears and loyalties as a student newspaper article threatens to expose dark school secrets.

Jopy Arnaldo’s “KomiXXX” pairs two Filipinos on break from their Japanese film — an aspiring director and a “sexy” actress wanting to star in “serious” films — who come together to make an erotic comic. Sam Manacsa’s “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours” follows 19-year-old Rosemary, the only witness to a young boy’s disappearance, as she’s drawn into the search by the child’s desperate mother Agnes.

Tyrone Acierto’s “What’s Left Of Us” presents a couple and their chronically ill daughter fighting to stay sane in a collapsed world consumed by a dementia-like plague. Dominic Bekaert’s “Daddy Cool” unfolds during martial law in Manila’s disco era as a career woman finds herself in a tangle of love and jealousy with her female boss and their shared gigolo. Dodo Dayao’s “Dear Wormwood” disrupts the quiet lives of four mountain-dwelling women of faith with the arrival of a time-traveling ghost bringing the world to an end.

VARIETY

The Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA) will present three promising sophomore features from acclaimed Thai filmmakers at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, marking the 10th edition of the Thai Pitch at Cannes program.

The pitching event, scheduled for May 19-20 at the Thai Pavilion in Village International, continues its mission of connecting Thai filmmakers with potential investors, co-producers, funders, sales agents, distributors and festival programmers. The initiative has established a strong track record of launching successful Thai productions into the international festival circuit.

Taiki Sakpisit returns with “The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth” after his Rotterdam Fipresci Prize-winning debut “The Edge of Daybreak” (2021). The new project follows sisters Chareeya and Chalika who, after their parents’ deaths, become entangled in desire and haunted by memories within Bangkok’s shadowy underworld. Producer Cattleya Paosrijaroen, whose credits include Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cannes Jury Prize winner “Memoria,” is attached.

Itt Patiparn Boontarig presents “Ghost of the Currents,” which follows his debut “Solids by the Seashore” (2023) that won multiple awards at the Busan International Film Festival. His new supernatural drama centers on a man who returns to his flood-ravaged Mekong riverside village where locals believe a vengeful “River Ghost” is responsible for the disaster.

Nontawat Numbenchapol, who successfully transitioned from acclaimed documentary work to fiction with “Doi Boy” (2023), brings “Ray of Light,” a class-conscious drama set on a film production where a lighting technician and leading actress from vastly different worlds briefly connect. Veteran line producer Tanade Amornpiyalerk is producing.

All three projects recently received funding support from THACCA, with selection handled by a committee including Thai filmmaker-producer Pimpaka Towira, World Film Festival Bangkok director Donsaron Kovitvanitcha, and industry veteran Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who will coordinate the Cannes meetings.

Previous Thai Pitch success stories include “Arnold is a Model Student” (2022), “Anatomy of Time” (2021), “Die Tomorrow” (2017), and “Malila: The Farewell Flower” (2017), all of which secured international festival premieres and recognition.

Variety

“Thai filmmaker switches to fiction to reveal migrant realities”
An interview in which Nontawat discusses his move from documentary to narrative fiction with his debut feature Doi Boy, choosing fiction to protect the identities of the migrant workers who inspired the story.

read more…

 

After making four documentary features about border conflicts, ethnicity, prostitution and human rights, Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol picks up many of the same themes in his first fiction feature “Doi Boy.”

The film, which premieres this week in the Jiseok competition section of the Busan International Film Festival, is the story of three young men living on the margins of society in Thailand and their common quest for justice. The characters are an illegal immigrant from Myanmar working, despite his own heterosexuality, as a gay prostitute in Chiang Main, a customer and an on-the-run political activist he is trying to help.

The narrative takes in a large number of the social and political problems that have beset seemingly idyllic Thailand in recent years – undocumented workers, illegal immigrants fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, an oppressive political power structure, enforced ‘disappearance’ of those who the government’s political opponents and critics, police brutality – and traffic jams.

“I was surprised to find so many immigrant men [from Myanmar’s Shan region] as sex workers in Chiang Mai. It is not because they want this kind of work, but because they are undocumented and forced into low-paid jobs. I thought about making this as a documentary, but the subject is too dangerous to do that way,” Numbenchapol told Variety. “Another reason that I took this route was that I felt I’d already learned a lot about making documentaries and risked becoming stale. In contrast when I saw this as a feature, I was excited again like a baby. Everything was new again.”

“I developed the film over five years, and the script changed a lot over that time, just as there were many important events that changed my country over that same period. I started with ethnic minorities and gender issues, but as the character moves to Thailand they have to give up their dream and face up to another set of social issues. These include corruption and environmental issues too,” said Numbenchapol, “But I think the biggest topic in my film is how everyone starts out with a dream, but that dream is not safe because of the social situation.”

Despite the gritty subject matter and the authorities’ list of taboo subjects that many well-known filmmakers have confronted, Numbenchapol says he did not encounter any censorship at the production stage. “I certainly worried about it, but I think that by making this as fiction was less of a problem than if we had made a film with real people’s names.”

Numbenchapol wrote a draft of the script and saw it significantly through a series of producers’ labs, project markets and co-production markets, starting with the 2016 SEAFIC development program, That was followed by 2017 EAVE Ties That Bind – Steve Chen, Producer, 2017 Busan Festival Asian Project Market, 2017 Luang Prabang Film Lab – Nontawat Numbenchapol, Director, 2018 Busan Asian Film School (AFiS) – Supatcha Thipsena, Producer, 2018 Berlinale Co-Production Market (with support from Goethe-Institut Thailand), 2018 Cannes Cinéfondation l’Atelier – Official Selection, invitation only, and the 2019 Cannes Thai Pitch.

A lot of the potential co-producers from Europe were interested but expected to see a portion of the budget come from Thailand. “It is not easy because Thailand does not have many funds like in Germany or France, and this project was likely too critical for it to receive support from the government’s fund,” said Numbenchapol. But, surprisingly, he found backing from new studio Neramitnung Film, which was interested in putting up the entire production budget.

“I talked with my [French Cambodian] producer Davy Chou (“Golden Slumbers,” “Return to Seoul”) at Anti-Archive, and we decided go with Neramitnung, because their money seemed really secure and to say sorry to some of the others who wanted to be involved,” said Numbenchapol. That left the film as a Thai-Cambodian co-production.

The budget was typical for a Thai-produced indie, pegged at $725,000. That was enough for 20 days of shooting and provided limited room for improvization.

Though Numbenchapol says he’d like to go further in the fiction register and has not committed to his next project, he won’t be turning his back on non-fiction either. “I make documentaries in order to make a living. I’m often contacted to help out on foreign production Or, to make short documentaries for NGOs, TV or as art. The income is not as bad as people think,” Numbenchapol says.

Variety…

I’ve been telling myself throughout this COVID-19 situation that I’m lucky that the lockdown allows me to stay home and finish editing all my works, after having spent the entire year in researching and producing a great many sources. Among those is what I’ll be presenting at Ver Gallery on July 11.

For this work, I picked one interviewee, out of scores of Burmese immigrants who work at bars and live in Chiang Mai, hoping for better lives.

I became friends with many of them, following their lives from a distance via Facebook feeds. For the one I chose, I offered him what I, and he, wanted the most, taking him across the border back to his hometown in Shan State, after six years away. I asked for his permission to film this.

Editing works, I haven’t set my feet out for a month, feeling I have more time than ever before reconsidering what I’m doing.

I’m still following their lives, at home via Facebook. All of them are unemployed because of the closure of the bars. Many couldn’t go home and need to take any available jobs, mostly daytime construction work—the one in my artwork as well.

Occasionally, I ask him how he’s holding up. He has 200 baht left, having instant noodles with eggs everyday. His Thai girlfriend also works a nightlife job. She’s not qualified for the government’s 5,000-baht relief subsidy, but some of my friends who’re doing much better financially are. I can’t help questioning the management of this relief.

Two months have passed: Thailand’s COVID-19 infection rate is at a satisfactory level; the suicide rate is, though, higher than that of COVID-19 related deaths. This is a fruitful outcome of the government’s masterful restriction of people’s rights by imposing curfews. The total opposite can be said for their people’s management skills, judging from the relief and healing measures. The gaps between social classes have been made clear, and those who don’t have access to resources, in particular, are bogged down and cannot find a possible way to continue living in this area of the Earth called Thailand.

ART4D

Complainant / Plaintiff The National Film and Video Board (National Board), authorized under article 7 of the Film and Video Act B.E. 2551 (2008) to consider the decision of the Committee for Film and Video Censorship (Censorship Committee) in the appellate process. The Censorship Committee, appointed by the Ministry of Culture, authorized under article 16 of the Film Act to consider and categorize films for commercial release in the Kingdom. I LAW…

This conversation with the film director Nontawat Numbenchapol on his movie Boundary(2013), which follows a young soldier called in Bangkok to break up the “red shirts” protest (2011) to his hometown in Sisatek, a zone of conflict between Thailand and Cambodia due to the ongoing political dispute between the two countries over the Preah Vihear Temple. Boundary was funded by Busan International Film Festival and Art Network Asia. Numbenchapol received the Young Filmmaker award from the Bangkok Critics Assembly and Boundary screened across many film festivals such as Berlin International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

Read more..

Q & A with Nontawat Numbenchapol A quick chat with the award-winning documentary director on his first experimental docu-fiction, #BKKY

#BKKY is about teenage life and is quite different from your previous works. Why did you decide to make a film on this topic? 

I’ve always been interested in making films that I’ve never done before, but are, in some way, still related or accumulated from my old works. I was thinking about an audience that generally doesn’t watch the experimental documentaries I usually make, like teenagers who grew up in the city. So I felt like making a movie for them. I decided to interview 100 Bangkok-based teens on topics like love, dreams, studies, and family to learn more about them.

What did you find out from interviewing these teens?
What’s interesting is that teenagers these days have more digital options from Google to Youtube and Netflix. The rise of the digital age has resulted in individuals who are more grown-up, more confident and [accepting of] more varieties of love. Over 60 percent of those I spoke to consider themselves gender-fluid and base their relationships more on their feelings and less on gender.

What are you trying to express through this film?
I wanted to reflect on what the world has become through the eyes of teenagers. When I spoke with these interviewees, I came to realize that all the problems that I thought were massively huge when I was around their age and had no one to talk to are in fact common issues everybody encounters at a certain age. I’d like teenagers to see the movie and feel like they have a friend who shares the same sort of problems, and probably feel stronger after watching it. I hope [the film] could serve as a platform for generating discussion.

Time Out…

Nontawat Numbenchapol on the haunting truth behind his new feature documentary, By The River

Why did you choose Klity Village as the setting?

When planning the project, we wanted to present a kind of neutral story, something everyone can relate to. So we started research into the environmental problems facing the country. Talking with activists, we heard a lot of shocking stories. Klity Village is one example where people fought and won against a big factory and the pollution control department. We hope their victory will inspire people fighting other cases of environmental pollution. Being a small village deep in the woods, it also allowed us to work in a more controllable environment to create beautiful pictures.

How was the filming experience compared to working on Boundary?

We spent three years filming Boundary, a lot of traveling. By The River was a relatively much smaller project. It was more about adjusting to the environment, like the limited electricity and clean drinking water. Also timing and planning was essential to get the footage we needed.

We first thought we’d see the villagers with some sort of deformity, but they look just normal. Yet beneath that, everyone’s blood is contaminated with lead. Likewise, under the clear water at the bottom of the river, there’s lead, which is a heavy metal. The villagers’ diet relies on fish from the river, so it affects the children’s brain function. Most of the elders who experienced the problem at its peak are dead, while some are now living with blindness.

Filming was divided into two phases; when we returned to Klity for the second period, we found our lead character had passed away. That had a big impact on the film: as you can see, it gets heavier, gloomier and has a haunting feel to it.

Does your background in graphic design contribute to the visuals in your films?

It does a lot. Studying visual communication design, I know precisely how to compose, leaving me with the camera techniques to work on. Now that I know my way around the camera and shooting, it’s become easier to accomplish the shots. I also worked with Withit Chanthamarit [emerging photographer whose work recently exhibited at Speedy Grandma’s Inhabitation exhibition], who shares a similar photography style, on set. Cinematography-wise, it’s almost like still images: static but moving.

What do you think of the general perception of documentaries here in Thailand?

It’s better than last year. But most people are still stuck with this picture of a TV documentary, with a lot of boring talking heads. But if we look globally, it’s evolved a lot. Maybe it’s down to more access to equipment which allows more people to work. It’s exciting now; the challenge of making a documentary is in how people are competing in altering the form of a documentary, playing with the form structure, almost redefining it, like The Act of Killing or The Missing Picture, which are much acclaimed by critics. I hope the trend will soon arrive in the mainstream here, too.

BK Magazine…

What’s it about? The Cambodian border conflict around Preah Vihear temple is the main focus for this documentary that also surveys the colour-coded political divide in Thai society.

Who directed it? Nontawat Numbenchapol, making his feature debut with “Boundary”, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Why’s it good? With an artful, observational style, Nontawat takes a snapshot of a timely, complex issue. Though it was well received in Berlin, at home the director had to overcome censorship issues, and his film was initially banned when he sought a commercial release. After an outcry in the social media and coverage in the international press, the ban was rescinded. But the film’s political subject caused Thailand’s Major Cineplex movie chain to have second thoughts about showing it. In the end, Nontawat had to make his limited release even more limited as he hired out the theatres and sold tickets himself, shepherding the film around the country.

WISE KWAI…

Nontawat Numbenchapol, Bangkok, classe 1983, quattro prove di regia a partire dal 2006 con Weirdrosopher World, sa raccontare storie scomode che, se gli valgono censure e restrizioni in patria, lo collocano fra i nomi più promettenti di quella nuova generazione di registi thailandesi che il successo internazionale di Apichatpong Weerasethakul negli ultimi anni sta contribuendo a far conoscere.
Presente quest’anno a Berlino, sezione Outsiders, con Boundary, storia di Aod, operaio ventiquattrenne incontrato sul set di un film thailandese, che gli racconta il suo passato di soldato al servizio del regime militare in Thailandia e in guerra contro la Cambogia, Numbenchapol parla di guerra e morte, caos e distruzione girando la macchina dalla parte delle vittime. Non vola un proiettile nel suo film, ma lo strazio non ne esce diminuito.
Anche in Sai nam tid shoer (By the River) la denuncia non è urlata, passa attraverso il formatdocumentario su cui s’innestano scarni frammenti di fiction. Fra i due poli “uomo nella natura” e “uomo contro la natura”, l’asse mediano è il fiume Klity, curiosamente chiamato il “ruscello”, che scorre nella provincia di Kanchanaburi, passa per Bangkok e sfocia nel Golfo di Thailandia. Protagonista di un disastro ambientale di portata ragguardevole, sulle sue rive sorge Lower Klity, villaggio abitato da una comunità di origini antiche, etnia karen, dedita alla pesca. Tutt’intorno respira, profonda, la foresta tropicale. Una piccola scuola, una giovane maestra che insegna a leggere ai bambini, un ragazzo con stampella che pesca nell’acqua bassa con un bastone, un gatto a cui fa coccole sopra un carretto insieme alla ragazza nella pausa delle lezioni. Una vecchia cieca, la nonna, che mastica noci di cocco, silenzi ovattati nella calura umida del meriggio. Numbenchapol si sposta con gradazione millimetrica verso il centro, restringe lentamente il campo intorno ai personaggi, porta il linguaggio al minimo. L’inquadratura fissa lascia il tempo di scrutare a lungo oggetti e registrare movimenti, i suoni della natura si smorzano nell’armonia di leggeri arpeggi di chitarra, ma intanto una sensazione di attesa cresce, fino a diventare un presagio funesto e indefinito. Alla metà circa dei settantun minuti del film gli indizi seminati prendono corpo.
L’acqua del fiume è inquinata dalle scorie di un impianto industriale che lavorava minerali a monte della zona. La fabbrica è chiusa da quattordici anni, ma ha lasciato sul letto uno strato di piombo e schiuma come di shampo, i pesci sono contaminati e la salute degli abitanti è stata compromessa gravemente.
Alcuni sono diventati ciechi, altri disabili, ma si continua a pescare quel pesce con mezzi primitivi, tuffandosi anche se c’è pericolo, anche se si riemerge con strane vertigini e si sa che le grotte sul fondo possono creare un risucchio che impedisce di tornare a galla. Sono i discorsi dei due ragazzi della prima parte a mettere in allarme. L’innesto della fiction sul documentario è impercettibile, i sottotitoli traducono voci distanti di una coralità paesana invisibile, ma è quella che sentiamo stringersi intorno alla famiglia che ha perso un figlio, annegato, forse per volere dell’oscuro spirito della foresta.
I gesti rituali di tradizioni antiche ora riprendono il loro ruolo, i bonzi intonano le litanie per il Buddha, si cucina a lungo per le offerte agli spiriti. Nel punto lungo il fiume in cui il corpo è stato cremato c’è la sua tomba, e lì vicino continuano a giocare i bambini e passa un pescatore con quattro pesci infilzati nel bastone da pesca a mano. A Bangkok i pochi abitanti di Klipy di cui nessuno più si ricordava hanno manifestato con cartelli, il funzionario del governo ha detto belle e giuste parole, l’hanno ascoltato sorridenti mentre li esortava a non mangiare quel pesce e ad usare i soldi della paga per comprarlo, se proprio non volevano mangiar carne. Ma quale paga? Siamo poveri.
Una miscela inedita fra presa diretta sul reale e dimensione sognante questa di Sai nam tid shoer, ottenuta con carrellate lente che dilatano le emozioni creando attesa. Le leggende ancestrali della terra affiorano, appena suggerite da una messa in scena sempre più rarefatta, convivono sullo stesso piano narrazione e silenzio totale, realtà e finzione, passato e futuro. Ciò che s’imprime nella visione diventa gusto amaro nella post-visione, le suggestioni della foresta tropicale, le apparizioni del fiume, ora scrosciante, ora calmo e maestoso, non risultano empatiche. Da quella massa d’acqua, che si scompone nelle rifrazioni della luce solare, emergono vicende politiche e sociali della Thailandia e di una realtà rurale che sta morendo. L’impatto con la modernità l’ha fermata e fermerà anche molto altro lungo la sua strada. Quell’acqua carica di piombo arriva fino a Bangkok per poi confluire, al termine della sua corsa, nel Golfo di Thailandia. Quindi, di passo in passo, nel gran padre Oceano.

indie eve…

“By the River (Sai Nam Tid Shoer): Film Review”
A review of By the River, Nontawat’s documentary on a Karen village living beside a lead-contaminated creek in Kanchanaburi — praised as a quiet, composed meditation on rural lives and environmental injustice.

Just months after gracing the Berlinale with Boundary – a documentary which touches on the once-deadly and still-festering frontier row between Thailand and Cambodia – Nontawat Numbenchapol has swiftly reappeared with yet another piece digging into yet another controversy set in his home country’s far-flung borderlands: By the River revolves around a village in western Thailand still reeling from the ecological disaster brought about by contamination from a leaking lead mine.

Not that By the River will be troubling Thai censors as Boundary did back in April though, when the film was initially banned from domestic release before the authorities backtracked two days later and granted permission for screenings: the issue at hand here is certainly less politically sensitive here, and Nontawat’s treatment also leans towards the contemplative and poetic than his previous film which, though hardly a hard-edged critique on the status quo, comprises mentions of fatalities of a government crackdown on demonstrations in 2010 and also a Cambodian soldier’s condemnation of the Thai government’s military maneuvers.

While certainly made with the palpable aim of raising debates about the environmental catastrophes rural dwellers have endured so as to keep cities (and their social elites) thriving, By the River conducts its argument by revealing gently the lingering pain and anguish beneath lush, pastoral vistas which have seemingly recovered from that deadly eco-calamity 15 years ago. Like Boundary, By the River would certainly build on the acclaim it has already received ever since its premiere at Locarno (where it was garlanded with a Special Mention nod), with its appearances at Yamagata, Hong Kong and (in a fortnight’s time) Luang Prabang signaling more stops on the festival circuit, and also green-themed events beyond Asia.

For the uninitiated, By the River could easily pass off as simply a depictment of rural life in Thailand: it will be nearly halfway into this 67-minute film that a combination of visuals (petitions at the town hall, court hearings) and on-screen text would bring to the fore the sufferings of Lower Klity, where its inhabitants – who belong to the Karen ethnic minority – felt the brunt of toxic waste seeping from a lead mine into the river which their lives depend on.

But the villager’s calm, quotidian existence and quiet laments – a man on crutches speaking to his listless friend about his and others’ physical ailments; a gentle schoolteacher helping local children to learn the alphabet; an old woman talking about her optic nerves shattered by exposure to the poison – only heightens the feeling of a haven lost, with these marginalized and hapless villagers becoming sacrifices for the well-being of the unseen urbanites out there in Bangkok. One of Nontawat’s on-screen texts ruminates how the Karen people’s tribute to their powerful rulers for four centuries is now just repaid by lead – and now these silent sufferings have remained unheard by the center. “Will the waste dumped 30 to 40 years ago finally reach the Gulf of Thailand?” the director asks through another intertitle; By the River is perhaps that catalyst designed to carry this message downwater more rapidly, more urgently.

Given how the catastrophe began because of a river’s flowing currents, Nontawat’s film puts nature and its elements the very center of its visual narrative. Water, of course, is omnipresent; the underwater scenes – in which boys prod the riverbed for fish, an act which also points to possible toxin which might have remained there – provides some kinetic counterpoint to mostly slow-burning sequences, such as the static observations of, say, how human life and poetic scenarios (a reflected moon slowly morphing into something akin an expanding star) burst out of the stream. And then there are the ashes, the remnants of burning embers and also the funereal pyre of a man recently deceased.

While Nontawat sometimes errs towards an excessive mournful tone (he could easily have cut back on the use of the fade-to-black) but By the River remains an enchanting piece which could bring forth more awareness of misery in the margins – which the Karen people are certainly confined to, an issue which has also been raised in October by Sopawan Boonnimitra and Peerachai Kerdsint‘s Busan festival entry The Isthmus. But while the latter is mired mid-way in between direct political engagement and melancholic meanderings, Nontawat’s offering goes straight for the unsaid to nudge people towards social advocacy, with engaging results.

Venue: Hong Kong Asian Film Festival
Production Companies: Ok-Pi-Dern and Mobilelab
Director: Nontawat Numbenchapol
Co-producer: Theepisit Mahaneeranonit
Executive Producers: Krittavit Rimtheparthip, Somchai Suwanban
Cinematographers: Withit Chanhamarit, Nontawat Numbenchapol, Grisda Saisungchalao, Gumpa Funfeo, Vichai Ogan Nasuanbarisut
Editor: Wasunan Hutawet
Music: Karen Musicians, Uncle Pachong, Auntie Meaonong In Karen and Thai
67 minutes

Hoolywood Reporter

After a rough start, Nontawat Numbenchapol is enjoying a rewarding year. On Sunday, the 66th Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, one of Europe’s oldest cinefests and a much-respected jamboree of art-house movies, awarded a Special Mention prize to his new film By The River, which tells the story of Lower Klity village in Kanchanaburi province, where residents have been affected by lead poisoning incidents.

The film’s Thai title is Maenam Tid Chua, or literally “infected river”. The version that won the prize in Locarno runs slightly over one hour, but the film was originally conceived and broadcast for the Thai PBS channel. The television version, which aired a few months ago, was only 22 minutes long.

The director, along with his producer at Ok Pai Dern company, will explore the possibility of releasing the full version in cinemas.

The Karen village of Klity has been in the news for decades after its main creek suffered lead contamination, a disastrous result of mining since the 1970s, which has seriously threatened the lives and well-being of villagers.

 

After lengthy legal battles, last year the Supreme Court made an important ruling by ordering the Pollution Control Department to clean up Klity Creek.

By The River, however, tells the story with the eye of an impressionist painter: the film largely consists of tranquil, breathtaking shots of the nature around the village, with minimal dialogue that only alludes to the fatal aftermath of the environmental horror. Children play and young men in the village still go spear-fishing _ and one of them becomes the latest victim of the contaminated creek that looks so inviting on the surface.

There’s only one section of the film that captures the scenes at a Bangkok court when the Karen villagers arrive for the hearing.

This is the second Nontawat documentary film to make the news this year.

On April 30, the director found himself in one of the year’s most perplexing headlines: his documentary film Boundary (Fah Tam Pandin Soong), which discusses the Thai-Cambodian border conflict, was banned by Thai censors _ only to be un-banned and cleared for screening two days later.

The film board even apologised to the director and said a “technical error” led to its initial decision.

Boundary had a limited release in cinemas in June.

By The River won the prize in the Cinema of the Present section, which focuses on young and up-and-coming filmmakers.

_ Kong Rithdee

Bangkok Post

 

Thai director Nontawat Numbenchapol’s independent documentary Boundary appears to have met one.

The Thai government announced a countrywide ban on the film Tuesday, saying its content is “a threat to national security and international relations.”

A modestly budgeted art-house doc, Boundary premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February. The film begins with footage of the so-called “red shirt” political protests that paralyzed Bangkok in 2010 and resulted in an armed standoff and the deaths of nearly 100 people. Nontawat then zeros in on one of the soldiers involved in the dispute and follows him to his hometown along the Thailand-Cambodia border, an area that has long been the focus of an occasionally violent border dispute between the two countries.

Conversations between the soldier, Nontawat and Cambodian and Thai villagers are overlaid upon scenes of the rural countryside, glimpses of damage wrought by the conflict and shots of an historic, 1,000-year-old Hindu temple, which both Thailand and Cambodia claim as their own, and which has often served as the fulcrum of the ongoing border spat.

On April 15, the UN’s International Court of Justice began a hearing over the temple and the surrounding area depicted in Boundary. Fighting in the region left 18 people dead and thousands of villagers displaced in April 2011. Thailand and Cambodia both made their cases for claim to the territory last week and are currently awaiting the UN high court’s decision, hoping for a resolution. Apart from the territorial issue, relations between the two countries are mostly positive, and they remain strong trading partners.

“I really didn’t expect this film to be banned,” Nontawat told The Hollywood Reporter. “Everyone I’ve spoken with who’s seen it says the film shows the point of view of every side, and that the film is neutral. My intention was to let the film be a space for the people in the troubled territories to voice their views and feelings to the outside world — which they haven’t had a chance to express in other Thai media.”

Referring to either the Red Shirt protests from 2010, or the border dispute with Cambodia — or both — the Thai Ministry of Culture division that issued the ban, added: “The film presents some information on incidents that are still being deliberated by the Thai court and that have not yet been officially concluded.”

Representatives from the Thai government were not immediately reachable for comment.

Thailand has a ratings classification system, but films can still be outright denied for mass consumption. Such bans are relatively rare, but there have been notable incidents, such as the barring of Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Centuryin 2007, and Tanwarin Sukkhapisit’s Insects in the Backyard (2010), a drama about a self-destructive transsexual raising two teenagers who turn to prostitution. More recently, Thailand banned local director Ing K‘s Shakespeare Must Die (2012), which was billed as a Thai adaptation of Macbeth with contemporary political overtones. At the time, the government said its content “causes divisiveness among the people of the nation.”

Hollywood has fared comparatively better in recent years. Despite some local outcry over the Hangover 2’s stereotypical portrayal of the country as a place of prostitution and seedy intrigue — along with a fight scene set in a Buddhist monastery, which some in the Buddhist-majority country found blasphemous — the film was given the official thumbs-up for screening.

Nontawat says he and his producers were planning a limited release for Boundary at a few independent cinemas in Bangkok. The director says he now plans to appeal the ruling with the country’s National Film Board, but he is not optimistic for a reversal.

“Before Boundary, Insects in the Backyard and Shakespeare Must Diewere banned, and they both went to the administrative court, but they still haven’t gotten an answer,” he said. “I think it’s useless to appeal, but what else I can do?”

Hollywood Reporter…

The thorny topic of Thailand and Cambodia’s border dispute around the ancient Preah Vihear temple is made much more interesting and easily digestible when it’s set to an indie rock and electronica music soundtrack.

In Boundary (ฟ้าต่ำแผ่นดินสูง, Fahtum Pandinsoong), filmmaker Nontawat Numbenchapol approaches his subject with the artful aesthetic that’s the calling card of other indie Thai filmmakers, with static camera set-ups, tracking shots in cars, slow-mo and blurs offering comment on the subject matter.

Known for his debut Weirdrosopher World, a documentary about Thai skateboarders, Nontawat apparently stumbled on the Boundary story by chance, at the New Year’s Eve celebration at the end of 2010. By coincidence, it was at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection, which earlier in the year had been occupied by the “red shirt” protests that ended badly, with dozens fatally shot by government forces and arson attacks. There, at the New Year’s countdown, he met a soldier on leave who was headed to his village in the Thai-Cambodian border area. Nontawat asked if he could tag along.

Politics are an unavoidable subtext to the images that the camera captures of a road trip from Bangkok to northeastern Thailand, accompanied at times by pulpy-sounding electronica beats.

A contentious topic for decades, Preah Vihear was awarded to Cambodia in a 1962 International Court of Justice verdict. The simmering border dispute boiled up again around 2008 when the Thai government at the time supported Cambodia’s bid for Unesco World Heritage status for the temple. It would benefit both sides, and boost tourism was the reasoning. But the move riled the royalist “yellow shirts”, who played the nationalist card and used Preah Vihear as a political cudgel. At issue is a disputed 4.6 square kilometer area around the temple that some contend is Thai soil. The yellow shirts conducted a campaign of activism that stirred things up and eventually resulted in the Thai and Cambodian sides sending in troops and lobbing shells at one another.

Popular YouTube footage from one of the firefights, looking like a grainy outtake from Full Metal Jacket, is included in Boundary.

Nontawat kept out of the line of fire, but visited spots that had been shelled. He accompanies Royal Thai Army officers has they inspect damage, including a rice granary that’s had its roof smashed, a bullet-pocked house and a vehicle with holes in it that aren’t decals. Another scene shows a school that had its roof damaged by the shelling.

His interviews with Thai residents reveal their upset about the hostilities at the border and being dragged into the dispute by the yeller shirts. They had enjoyed a good living off the tourism trade, and selling things on the Cambodian side of the border.

They also expressed indifference and perhaps disdain for the color-coded shirt movements. At dinner one night, it’s pointed out the hostess is wearing yellow, while another at the table is in red. “I am wearing no shirt,” the man of the house says. “I am too poor.”

Given an “in” to Cambodia by one of his producers, French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (Golden Slumbers), Nontawat also sought the other side of the story. Thai film expert Donsaron Kovitvanitcha is another producer, making Boundary a Thai-Cambodian production.

In his talk at Boundary‘s April 6 screening at the Salaya International Documentary Film Festival (it had its Thai premiere on April 1 as Salaya Doc’s opening film), Nontawat explained he had to tread lightly because Cambodians are generally suspicious of Thais. He didn’t want to end up like pair of yellow-shirt activists who were jailed as spies (a topic not covered in the film). So he posed as a Chinese-American student and got his interviews, which are punctuated by a toddler boy bouncing up and down on his toy car until he falls on his rear and bursts into tears.

In the end, Nontawat finally visits the temple itself, which is dramatically situated right on the border, on the shoulder of a mountain, overlooking the Cambodian valley below. I went there 12 years ago, and the only way in was through Thailand on a chicken bus from Aranyaprathet. Now there’s a sturdy road on the Cambodian side, which winds its way up the rugged slopes of the Dangrek Mountains, finally connecting the Angkorian treasure to the country that lays claim to it.

Boundary is one of those rare Thai political films. Most don’t end up getting a general release, but Boundary might be okay because the opinion from the Thai side of the border tends jibe with that of the “red shirts” and the sympathies of the current government.

While the documentary makes things clear, the reality of the situation is cloudy. Just as Boundary is beginning to be screened in Thailand, the International Court of Justice is holding hearings about the Preah Vihear issue. Cambodia called for the hearing in the face of the yellow-shirt activism, and will ask that the ICJ reinterpret its 1962 ruling. For its part, the Thai side says there is no dispute and asks that the case be thrown out.

It’s not expected to go well. Protests by the Thai interests are expected, adding much tension an already politically tense time.

WISE KWAI…