อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล verifica

La RicercaApichatpong Weerasethakulอภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล

Regista !ailandese

Jirawan KwanpechScuola di Media Design • Nuova accademia di belle arti • March 1, 2008

Jirawan Kwanpech • email: [email protected] • Scuola Media Design

mailto:[email protected]


Indice

1 Premessa 3 2 Biografia 4 3 Sang Sattawat(luce del secolo) 6

• storia 7• commento del regista 8• intervista 9• Sang Sattawat censor 15

4 Sud sanaeha 17 5 Filmografia

Jirawan Kwanpech • email: [email protected] • Scuola Media Design 2



Premessa Apichatpong Weerasetkul (Aphichaːtpong Wiːraː’seːthakul, !alandese: อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล, il Nomignolo thailendese è “เจ้ย” ma fuori dalla !ai-landia viene chiamato “Joe”) nasce il 16 luglio 1970 a Bangkok. Da quando a inizia a girare film e video, nei premi anni ’90, diventa uno dei pochi registi thailandesi che lavora al di fuori del regido sistema dello studio !ai. Promuove attivamente, inoltre, film sperimentali e indipendenti e al momento sta lavorando come produt-tore a un lungometraggio sperimentale. Si è guadagnato una crescente fame inter-nazionale con i suoi film e progetti artistici che sono stati presentati a mostre di livello mondiale. Ha realizzato molti cortometraggi e quattro film. Con tre film dalla visione estremamente originale, Weerasethakul è diventato uno dei più im-portanti giovani registi internazionali e una figura chiave del cinema emergente thailandese.Tropical Malady, il suo sucesso film, ha vinto il premio della giuria a Cannes nel 2004




Biografia:BiographyA p i c h a t p o n g Weerasethakulอภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล

Regista Thailandese

E’ sbarcato nei lidi del cinema europeo come una vera scoperta, anche se ha un nome che è facile da dimenticare (e quasi impossibile da leggere). Si è riscattato dall'anonimato gra-zie a una filmografia che ne ha fatto una star tailandese che brilla di luce propria. Un nuovo volto da scoprire per chi non lo conoscesse e un grande e sempre gradito ritorno per chi lo ha già apprezzato. Maestro di quella sessualità torbida che non conosce limiti di genere e di età, aspira definitivamente allo status di Autore e di regista di gran razza. In una parola, Apichatpong Weerasethakul è un artista sorprendente e che merita la massima attenzione.Nato nella profonda !ailandia nel 1970, figlio di due medici, è cresciuto a stretto con-tatto con l'ambiente ospedaliero. Studente prima di architettura e poi di cinema a Chi-cago, ha esordito nel circuito cinematografico con una serie di cortometraggi che ancora produce. Il primo di questa lunga serie di piccole perle è Bullet del 1993, cui seguiranno Kitchen and Bedroom (1994) e 0016643225059 (1994). Nel 2000, esordisce con il suo primo film Mysterious object at Noon, molto apprezzato in Francia. La pellicola è un esperimento vero e proprio, che mischia documentario e fic-tion e che racconta il viaggio dal paese di !ai a Bangkok, in cui il regista chiede alla gente che incontra il modo di continuare una storia su un ragazzo portatore di handicap e il suo insegnante. La vera conquista arriva però con Blissfully Yours, un altro documentario-fiction dove un trio di immigrati clandestini si lascia andare ai piaceri dell'eros in una foresta pluviale. Il film è unico nel suo genere. Si grida quasi al capola-voro. I titoli di testa appaiono a mezz'ora dall'inizio del film, i movimenti dei personaggi sono seguiti in tempo reale, scritte e disegni decorano la pellicola e la voce fuoricampo del protagonista maschile crea un effetto frastornante. In patria, la censura esplode per una sequenza decisamente hard, l'Europa invece vuole scavare più a fondo nei meandri della mente di questo nuovo piccolo "scienziato cinematografico pazzo".Nei film di Weerasethakul, quando scorrono i titoli di testa, non si legge mai "diretto da", ma sempre " concepito da " , a dimostrazione del fatto che il regista ha un rapporto pene-trante e quasi carnale con ognuna delle sue opere. Perturbante e decisamente stravagante, anche la scelta di co-dirigere !e Adventures of Iron Pussy, parodia degli 007, che ha come protagonista un agente segreto transessuale. Nel 2004 arriva Tropical Malady, coprodotto da Marco Muller e montato da Jacopo Quadri, che riceve il Premio Speciale della Giuria a Cannes. Il film, che esplora la passi-one di due amici e le singolari conseguenze che questa porterà, dà forma a un mondo




sempre più esotico ed erotico, al limite fra l'avanguardia concettuale e la tradizione nazi-onale.Le sue trame si fanno più complesse, il regista ha finalmente un'ottima chance per farsi tenere d'occhio da altri mondi cinematografici, suscitando una curiosità che ancora oggi, nel 2006, con Syndromes and a Century, pellicola che parla di amore e corteggiamenti, sembra essere ancora viva. In quest'ultimo film, il regista mette in scena i ricordi adoles-cenziali dei suoi genitori, con il timidissimo dottor Toa che tenta di conquistare la sua collega Tei. Weerasethakul si presta anche come attore, in una piccola parte e rispecchia e rende vivo ciò che gli sta attorno immergendolo nella quotidianità più lucida e assorta che si conosca come un Antonioni dagli occhi a mandorla.Sempre pronto a riflettere su ciò che lo circonda, dalla globalizzazione all'omosessualità, preme l'acceleratore su un bisogno di semplicità e nostalgia per una perduta innocenza, sfogliando i toni lievi del vivere, rendendoli intimisti, e utilizzando immagini poetiche che risvegliano sensazioni delicate e labili. Con la sua eccentricità, colpisce nel segno ed è una svolta per il cinema tailandese, che sembra gridare, sotto tutti i fronti ed i generi: «Anche io esisto!».




Sang sattawatแสงศตวรรษLuce del secolo Syndromes and a Century




SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY

35 mm/ 105 minutes/ Dolby SRD/ 2006 (!ai title: Sang Sattawat)

!ailand/Austria/France

SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY is a film in two parts which sometimes echo each other. !e two central characters are inspired by the film-maker's parents, in the years before they became lovers. !e first part focuses on a woman doctor, and is set in a space reminiscent of the world in which the film-maker was born and raised. !e second part focuses on a male doctor, and is set in a more contemporary space much like the world the film-maker lives in.

Awards

Best Film Award, 9th Deauville Asian Film Festival, France, 2007Best Editor Award, Asian Film Award, Hong Kong, 2007Special Mention, Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland, 2007Honourable Mention, Adelaide Film Festival, Australia, 2007

stories1

In a small country hospital, Dr Toey interviews Nohng, an army-trained doctor who is about to start working in the hospital. Waiting nearby is Toa, who is shyly, hopelessly, trying to court Toey.

Toey's daily routine in the hospital keeps her quite busy. An old monk who comes to her with aching joints tries to cajole her into providing a range of prescription medicines for his temple and the local community. She tries to recover an overdue debt. And she finds herself thinking back to her encounters with the orchid expert Noom. He coveted a rare wild tree orchid in the hospital grounds and took it to his botanical farm. !ere Toey met a middle-aged woman named Jenjira, and they talked about the history of the farm - and about love.

In the hospital's dental surgery, Dr Ple develops an unexplained attraction to a young monk, Sakda, who once wanted to be a DJ. At night, dentist and patient talk about their past lives - and about love.




2

In a modern, urban hospital, Dr Toey is interviewing Nohng, an army-trained doctor who is about to start working in the hospital. Waiting nearby is Toa, who is shyly, hope-lessly, trying to court Toey. She remains unreceptive.

Left to his own devices by his supervisor Toey, Dr Nohng visits an old friend in the physical therapy ward and is taken to a basement department where he meets two women doctors: Nant, who sells T-shirts for the Red Cross, and Wan, who sometimes appears on TV and has a taste for strong liquor. Wan tries to practice chakra healing on Off, a dis-turbed young man who has suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.

As the day draws to a close, Nohng meets his girlfriend Joy, who suggests that he should move to a hospital in a new development area, due to open next year. FILMMAKER'S NOTE

When I was a child, I lived in hospital environments for twelve years. My parents were doctors who raised us kids in a house provided by the small-town hospital where they worked. My mother often brought me to her office, a dimly lit room overlooking a children's ward. !is room was my playground, my station to look at people. Nearby was a pond where patients and relatives fed the fish. From the room's window, you could see people having lunch and sleeping in the corri-

dor, out of the sun. In retrospect, everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Recently I went back to the hospital and found myself lost. Everything had changed and the familiar spaces were gone. As a film-maker, I have been fascinated by the spaces of a small town and its landscape. But I had never really looked at the place where my family lived. Now, with my hometown changing rapidly and becoming more like Bangkok, my memories of the lost spaces seem even more distant. With the waves of globalization af-fecting the way we live and how we make films, my desire to make a real personal recol-lection has become more intense.

Syndromes and a Century is a contribution to the New Crowned Hope festival, a project that will explore how we remember, how our sense of happiness can be triggered by seem-ingly insignificant things. It is an experiment in recreation of my parents' lives before I was born, which also includes the lives of those who have touched me in the present day. It will be an interpretation of distant lives and of architectures that I remain fond of, along with contemporary ones that I have around me. Time is collapsed to mimic a pat-tern of remembering and to manifest my belief in the idea of reincarnation. We are con-stantly reborn, amassing our karma, and we learn from our successive lives in order to one day finally experience a true happiness.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul (written in 2005, before the start of production)




InterviewMEMORIES, MYSTERIES

from an interview with Apichatpong Weerasethakul by Tony Rayns (Bangkok, July 2006)

!e film's English title is rather allusive. 'Syndromes' suggests a concern with human be-havior, while 'a Century' suggests a concern with time. Is that how you saw it yourself?

Yes, this is the third film in which I've used the structure to explore dualities, and I think it will be the last. !e word 'Syndromes' could apply equally to Blissfully Yours or Tropi-cal Malady : it does refer to human behavior, such as the way we fall in love. I don't in-tend the word to have negative connotations; if falling in love is a kind of sickness, it's one for which we all show symptoms. 'Century' for me conveys the sense of moving for-ward. A century is more or less the same as a lifetime. I'm interested in the ways things change over time, and in the ways they don't change. It seems to me that human affairs remain fairly constant.

Blissfully Yours was, for me, a film about cinema and the way I see it. Tropical Malady is more directly personal: it's about me. And this film is about my parents. I feel that I'm achieving some kind of closure with this film, and the word 'Century' somehow chimes with that.

Here the main duality is female/male ...

Yes, the first half is for my mother and the second for my father. !e occasional repeti-tions reflect my belief in reincarnation: people do repeat things. I probably started out with larger dualities in mind - such as day/night, masculine/feminine - but the contrasts aren't so stark in the finished film. It's just my mother and father.

!e first half has a more 'period' feel than the second, but you haven't really tried to rec-reate the environment in which you grew up. You didn't want period detail?

!e town where I grew up is Khon Kaen (it's in the north-east of !ailand, near Laos); it's where my father died, and my mother still lives there. I went back there to look for locations, but the landscapes and hospital buildings that I remember simply don't exist any more. So even if I'd wanted to recreate the past, it would not have been possible. We shot the film in various places that evoked my childhood memories, but they're basically contemporary. !e first half of the film, centered on my mother, is less contemporary than the second, but that's because places in !ailand do look more old-fashioned when you leave Bangkok.


Memory is the central impulse in your film-making?



It may well be the only impulse! Everything is stored in our memory, and it's in the na-ture of film to preserve things ... But I've never set out to recreate my memories exactly. !e mind doesn't work like a camera. !e pleasure for me is not in remembering exactly but in recapturing the feeling of the memory - and in blending that with the present. !at's been especially true in this film. In Tropical Malady I was following a full script and trying to get things 'right'. But this film is not really about me, and so (thanks to the generosity of my producers, who never objected) I had the freedom to build it bit by bit, day by day. We shot the first half first, then took a break and rough-cut the footage before shooting the second half. !at helped very much to shape the rhythms in the second half, some of the dialogue and so on. We changed a lot in the second half in response to places we found while scouting for locations and little things that happened during the shoot. For example, the room full of prosthetic limbs was something we came across by chance, while scouting many hospitals. And the idea that the woman doctor would hide liquor in one of the prosthetic limbs was spontaneous, too. It came into the film at most a few days before we shot it.

So how many of the incidents and details in the film are based on memories and how many on present-day accidents of discovery?

It's impossible to say exactly. Take the interview scene which opens both halves of the film. !e decision to use psychological-test questions in the interview came from the ac-tress we cast: she may work in a toll-booth, but she has a Master's degree in Psychology. !e idea emerged in the workshops we did before shooting. But the question about what "DDT" stands for comes directly from something my father told me. It was a question he was asked by a teacher, and the answer in the film is the one he gave.

!e behavior of the Buddhist monks reflects exactly what I remember seeing in my fa-ther's clinic. Monks are not supposed to do things like play guitar, but such things do happen. I have a childhood memory of seeing monks in my hometown, walking near their temple, and thinking that they didn't look like monks at all. And Sakda told me that when he was a monk, he behaved no differently from the way he did normally. !e monk he plays in this film is of course a continuation of his role in Tropical Malady . In my original script, he changed into a tiger at night!

!e idea of the singing dentist came from someone I met when I went back to Khon Kaen to receive an award from my old university. One alumnus there was a dentist and he had released an album of songs about dental health. I thought I'd put that in the film, but when the time came to shoot, the guy wasn't available. So I cast someone else as the dentist. Quite a few of the other characters and incidents in the film also came from chance encounters during the research period: finding a beautiful man or woman and deciding to put them in the film.




For me, making a film is a welcome excuse to get out of Bangkok. In this case, we took the main actors to Hua Hin to get them comfortable with each other. We just talked to-gether and they did some on-camera interviews on video. Nobody except Sakda had ever really acted before, and so Sakda became a kind of acting coach to the others.

What does the tree orchid mean to you?

It's a beautiful parasite, and a symbol of fertility. Its seeds are blown by the wind and it attaches itself to the host it lands on. It's random and mysterious, like the film itself. As I was growing up, my mother had a huge garden of orchids. And she shot home movies of the family, so maybe there's more than one association there for me.

And the sun imagery?

!e !ai title means "Light of the Century". !e first half of the film is a kind of portrait of the sun, or an account of the way we depend on the sun for our survival. !e second half of the film is dominated by artificial light. But the chakra healing in the second half is also all about the sun: it's a way of channeling the sun's power into the body.

Finally, what are the bronze sculptures seen in the second half of the film?

!ey are important figures in the development of modern !ai medicine. Including the sculptures in the film was a way of paying respect to them. In one sense, the film is a tribute to those who passed on this century to us.


What were the workshops you mentioned?



credits

SAYOMBHU MUKDEEPROM (cinematographer)

Born in 1970, he graduated from the Communication Arts faculty of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, majoring in motion picture and still photography. His first film as cinematographer was Apichatpong's Blissfully Yours . Since then he has worked prolifi-cally as a freelance DoP for both features and commercials. His feature credits include Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's Sayew (co-directed by Kiat Sansanandana) and Midnight, My Love and three films by Yongyoot !ongkongtoon: Iron Ladies , Iron Ladies 2 and M.A.I.D.

LEE CHATAMETIKOOL (editor/post-production supervisor)

Lee is a film-maker and editor based in Bangkok. After studying in the USA, he returned to !ailand in 2001 to work on Apichatpong's Blissfully Yours . He has since grown alongside a new crop of independent film-makers in !ailand, editing debut features for several directors. Standing apart from the mainstream film industry, he continues to focus on innovative projects with an original approach. Exploring the art of weaving multi-layered narratives has been his passion for the past five years. In 2003 he established his own post-production company, Houdini Studio, to provide film editing and sound de-sign services to !ailand's independent film-making community. In addition to editing




and supervising the post-production of Apichatpong's films, he has worked on such films as Kongdej Jaturanrasmee and Kiat Sansanandana's Sayew (2003), Pimpaka Towira's One Night Husband (2003), Parkpoom Wongpoom and Banjong Pisanthanakun's Shutter (2004), Kongdej Jaturanrasmee's Midnight, My Love (2005), Wang Xiaoshuai's Shanghai Dreams (2005), Anocha Suwichakornpong's Graceland (2006) and Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves (2006).

AKRITCHALERM KALAYANAMITR (sound recordist)

Born in Bangkok, he has a BFA degree in Political Science/International Affairs from !ammasat University and originally intended to join the diplomatic corps. But a strong interest in film sidetracked him into studying film-making in the USA. After graduating from film school in 2000, he was active in 'underground' film-making in Bay Area San Francisco. On his return to !ailand he taught at the School of Audio Engineering and worked with Apichatpong for the first time on Tropical Malady . His recent credits in-clude Seth Grossman's !e Elephant King , Anocha Suwichakornpong's Graceland , Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves and !om Fitzgerald's 3 Needles .

PANTHAM THONGSANG (co-producer)

Pantham first studied film at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and went on to study at UCLA with a grant from the Asian Cultural Council. He joined the !ai music/film major Grammy in 1986 and worked for the company in many capacities. In 1995, he helped to set up Grammy's first film production division and worked as assistant di-rector, line producer and producer on many films. In 2004 he made his debut as director with the controversial I-Fak ( !e Judgment ). In the same year he set up his own com-pany Tifa, which co-produced Apichatpong's Tropical Malady .

CHARLES DE MEAUX (co-producer)

Charles de Meaux founded Anna Sanders Films in 1998 with Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, and the Association for Diffusion of Contemporary Art (X.Douroux, F.Gautherot). Dominique Gonzalez Foerster has also recently joined them. Anna Sanders Films proposes to be a production tool for projects that are shaping new cinematic land-scapes or, rather, the "moments in landscapes". As part of the program, Charles de Meaux directed the feature films Le pont du trieur with !ibault de Montalembert as well as Shimkent Hotel with Melvil Poupaud and Romain Duris. His next project, Stretch , will be shot in Macau and produced by MK2. His other credits include producing/co-producing Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady .

NANTARAT SAWADDIKUL (as Dr Toey)

Born in Bangkok, 1977, she has a BA in Business Administration from Bangkok Univer-sity and went on to take an MA in Education, majoring in Guidance and Counseling Psychology. While studying she began working as a toll collector for the Expressway and Transit Authority of !ailand, and has been working there ever since. She currently lives with her mother and grandmother, with a dog and two cats. She hopes to make her own short film one day.

JARUCHAI IAMARAM (as Dr Nohng)




Born in Khon Kaen, 1973, he has a BA in Education from Khon Kaen University. He went on to become a website programmer, and was for five years the webmaster of Sa-nook, !ailand's most popular website. He then became assistant vice-president of M-web. He's now a freelance, doing odd jobs and living with his son.

SOPHON PUKANOK (as Noom, the orchid expert)

Born in Petchaburi, 1970, he came to Bangkok at the age of 10. He studied Marketing and then worked as an agent for the motor companies Toyota and Mercedes Benz. He also worked as a sales supervisor for a supermarket and a real-estate company. But he was always interested in hair-dressing and acquired the skills in his free time. He subsequently opened his own hair salon and is now one of the most in-demand stylists at a salon in downtown Bangkok. He's been in the hair business for 12 years.

ARKANAE CHERKAM (as Ple, the dentist)

Born in Kalasin (north-east !ailand), 1975, he grew up in Bangkok and studied Busi-ness Administration at ABAC University. After graduating, he worked as a copy writer and web designer. Later, on a friend's recommendation, he began working as an Accounts Executive at a jewelry company. He now has his own jewelry shop in Jatujak Market in Bangkok; you can find it at Lock 3, Soi 45.

SAKDA KAEWBUADEE (as Sakda, the monk)

Born in Kanchanaburi (north-east !ailand), 1978, he came to Bangkok after finishing high school. He did many odd jobs, including stints selling KFC and working in a 7-Eleven. Four years later he joined the army for one year and then ordained as a monk in Patumtani. He later returned to Bangkok and worked in a communications company. It was during that time that he met Apichatpong, who cast him as the country boy in Tropical Malady . He has since appeared in many short films by Apichatpong.

NU NIMSOMBOON (as Toa)

Born in Bangkok, 1975, he studies Communication Arts at Rangsit University and went on to take a Communication Arts diploma from St Martin's College of Art and Design in London. Back in !ailand, he founded his own graphic design company called Slow-motion. His clients include TCDC (!ailand Creative Design Centre), and he has de-signed numerous CD sleeves and all the poster and promotional art for Pen-ek Ratanaru-ang's Last Life in the Universe .




!e film “Sang Satawat” (“Syndromes and a Century”), recently sub-mitted to the Censorship Board, was not approved for release in !ai-land unless cuts are made. !e Board would permit the release on the condition that four cuts were excised. As a result, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul decided to cancel commercial release of the film in !ailand and stood firm that these cuts not be made. He has issued a statement:

“I, a filmmaker, treat my works as my own sons or my daughters. When I conceived them, they have their own lives to live. I don't mind if people are fond of them, or de-spise them, as long as I created them with my best intentions and efforts. If these off-spring of mine cannot live in their own country for whatever reasons, let them be free. Since there are other places that warmly welcome them as who they are, there is no reason to mutilate them from the fear of the system, or from greed. Otherwise there is no reason for one to continue making art.”

Afterwards, the filmmaker’s representative contacted the Board and requested that the print of the film submitted for consideration be returned, including a letter confirming that the film would not be shown commercially and no appeal would be made. However, the Board refused to return the print, and insisted that they would do so only if these f o u r c u t s w e r e r e m o v e d b y t h e B o a r d i t s e l f . ( s e e m o r e d e t a i l s a t http://a-century.exteen.com)

Consequently, the detention of the print has sparked a widespread discussion especially on the Internet. A large number of resentful people, NGO workers and scholars have logged on to express their disagreement over the seemingly arbitrary censorship policies, which they regard as a form of oppression that the state employs to restrict the people’s freedom of expression. !e !ai Censorship Board still operates on the basis of anti-


http://a-century.exteen.com

http://a-century.exteen.com



quated legislation dating from the Film Act of 1930, which was the time this country was still ruled by Absolute Monarchy.http://www.bioscopemagazine.com/smf/index.php?topic=162.msg774..msg774

It eludes us all why !ai cinema has continued to be systematically straightjacketed even though there have been several attempts by the film community of the past 30 years to campaign for the complete overhaul of the aforementioned Film Act, whose essence func-tions against the spirit of genuine democracy in all manners.

!e shameful episode over “Syndromes and a Century”, a film that has brought much favorable critical attention to !ai cinema, is taking place in 2007 as the new constitu-tion is being drafted by the National Legislative Assembly. !is presents an opportunity to all of us, the local film community as well as film lovers from all over the world, to demand and reclaim our basic human rights to freely receive of informations and rights to express ourselves through cinema, which remains the only medium that’s still chained to the wicked pillar of undemocratic practice.

We who sign our names here henceforth assert the ownership of our basic human rights and the dignity of human beings under a democratic society. We demand the National Legislative Assembly decree the movies a form of mass media, and that it be liberated from the shackles of state intervention and restriction, the same as other mass media such as radio, television and newspapers have long been set free.

We’re petitioning not only for a just decision for “Syndromes and a Century”, but also for a long-needed modernization of !ai legislation concerning movie censorship. We de-mand that the authority revise the legislation to abandon the practice of cutting and ban-ning films, and instead to implement a rating system of the kind used in free countries. !is is the only way that !ai cinema and all cinema to be shown in !ailand can be freed from the shackles of outdated legal vandalism.




Sud sanaehaสุดเสน่หา Blissfully Yours

!e idea for Blissfully Yours was inspired by an incident that occurred in 1998 while I was shooting my previous film at a downtown zoo in Bangkok. A policeman handcuffed two teenage women and threw them into a police car. I eventually learned that they were illegal Burmese immigrants. !is was not an uncommon incident. It is an aspect of living in !ailand that many people face.

So I have cast the sun as my main character in this film. It is the primary source of energy for life, and at the same time, of destruction. It affects all the individuals in the story (a man’s mysterious sunburn, the relentless heat), and can be viewed as an invisible oppres-sive force around this area on the !ai-Burmese border. !e second character is the jun-gle, which confines the protagonists despite their desire to find freedom there. In this story, I have chosen not to dwell on the political issues of the !ai-Burmese border, but to focus on mundane and futile activities, which in themselves carry an underlying politi-cal message.

!e shooting went incredibly smoothly until we approached the second half of the film. It was shot in the deep jungle of Khao Yai national park, one of the most pristine forest reserves in !ailand. For a production team, it was like a remote training camp with re-lentless heat. It was impossible to bring in a power generator and so we depended solely on natural light. !ere were many days when we just trekked into the jungle and waited for the sun. One day, in !ai tradition, we gave offerings (a pig’s head and a bottle of liq-uor) to a forest goddess. And, in exchange, she gave us the sun.

A few days after the last scene was shot, the setting was destroyed by a big flood. A large tree in the background plunged into the water and the stream turned muddy. We again thanked the forest goddess for allowing us enough sun to capture the beautiful images in our film.

!!!




Filmografia: Filmography Lungometraggio: Feature films

• Mysterious Object at Noon (Dokfa nai meuman:ดอกฟ้าในมือมาร), (2000)• 2nd Prize, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan, 2001• NETPAC Special Mention Prize, Yamagata Documentary Film Festival,

2001• Grand Prix - Woosuk Award, JeonJu International Film Festival, Korea,

2001• Special Citation, "Dragons & Tigers," Vancouver Film Festival, Canada,

2000• Blissfully Yours (Sud sanaeha:สุดเสน่หา) (2002)

• Le Prix Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival, France, 2002• Golden Alexander Award – Best Film, !essaloniki Film Festival, Greece,

2002• Grand Prize, TOKYO FILMeX, Japan, 2002• !e Circle of Dutch Film Critics Award, Rotterdam International Film Fes-

tival 2003• !e International Critics Award (FIPRESCI Prize), Buenos Aires Film Fes-

tival 2003• Silver Screen Award, Singapore International Film Festival 2003• Best International Film Award, Images Festival, Canada 2004

• !e Adventure of Iron Pussy (Hua jai tor ra nong:หัวใจทรนง), co-director (2003)• Tropical Malady (Sud pralad:สัตว์ประหลาด!) (2004)

• Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival, France, 2004• Age d’or Prize, Cinédécouvertes, Belgium, 2004• Grand Prize, Tokyo Filmex, Japan, 2004• Best Film, !e xx International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Turin, Italy,

2005• Special Jury Prize, !e xx International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in Tu-

rin, Italy, 2005• Special Jury Prize, Singapore International Film Festival, Singapore, 2005

• Syndromes and a Century (Sang sattawat:แสงศตวรรษ) (2006)• In competition, Venice Film Festival, Italy, 2006• รางวัลภาพยนตร์ยอดเยี่ยม Lotus du Meuilleur Film-Grand Prix ในงานเทศกาล

ภาพยนตร์จากเอเชีย ครั้งที ่9 ประเทศฝรั่งเศส• Utopia (in development, scheduled for 2007)

Cortometraggi e installazioni video: Short films and installations

• Bullet (1993)• 0116643225059 (1994)




• Kitchen and Bedroom (1994)• Like the Relentless Fury of the Pounding Waves (1996)• Rice Artist Michael Shaowanasai's Performance (1996)• 100 Years of !ai Cinema (for !ai Film Foundation, 1997)• thirdworld (1998)• !e Lungara Eating Jell-O (for World Artists for Tibet, 1998)• Windows (1999)• Malee and the Boy (1999)• Boys at Noon (2000)• Boys at Noon / Girls at Night (2000)• Haunted Houses Project: !ailand (for Istanbul Biennial, 2001)• Secret Love Affair (for Tirana) (2001)• Narratives: Masumi Is a PC Operator / Fumiyo Is a Designer / I Was Sketching /

Swan's Blood (for Intercross Creative Center, 2001)• Second Love in Hong Kong, co-director (2002)• Golden Ship (for Memlingmuseum, 2002)• !is and Million More Lights (for 46664, 2003)• GRAF: Tong / Love Song / Tone (2004)• It Is Possible !at Only Your Heart Is Not Enough to Find You a True Love: True

Love in Green / True Love in White (for Busan Biennial, 2004)• Worldly Desires (for Jeonju International Film Festival, 2004)• Ghost of Asia, co-director (for Tsunami Digital Short Films project, 2005)• Waterfall (for Solar Cinematic Art Gallery/Curtas Vila do Conde International

Film Festival, 2006)• Faith (for FACT/Liverpool Biennial, 2006)• !e Anthem (for LUX/Frieze Art Fair, 2006)• Unknown Forces (for REDCAT, 2007)• Luminous People (2007)• Because (2007)• My Mother's Garden (for Christian Dior, 2007)• Meteorites (for Short Films for the King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 80th Birthday,

2007)

Riferimento: References• Chaiworaporn, Anchalee (April 2006). " A Perceiver of Sense. " 11th Hong Kong

Independent Short Film & Video Awards.• Lim, Li Min (November 2, 2006). A !ai director's elliptical view of the world,

International Herald Tribune• Pansittivorakul,!unska (May 19, 2006). " A Conversation with Apichatpong

Weerasethakul".




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