- World Premiere
Special Programs < New Action! Southeast Asia >
Cloud Cuckoo Country
Director: Aim-ei POLPITAK
2022｜Thailand｜47min｜Language: Thai｜Subtitles: English, Japanese
| Date | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 3/12 Sat | 11:40《Short films program 5》 | Cine Libre Umeda 4 |
| 3/17 Thu | 16:20《Short films program 5》 | Cine Libre Umeda 4 |
- Starring
- Nantanat THAKUDKUL
Chayatanus SARADATTA - Synopsis
Thai politics and history come under examination in director Aim-ei POLPITAK’s debut film as she sets up a meeting between two former lovers with different political views, a conservative woman (Nantanat THAKUDKUL) who is soon to be married to a man in a month, and her ex-lover, a radical progressive lesbian journalist (Chayatanus SARADATTA). As the two get reacquainted, we hear opposing political views and understand why they broke up as tempers flare and they clash. Ultimately, the conservative confronts a long-denied truth about her beliefs in society, democracy, royalty, the changes in her country but whether she chooses to act on it is another thing.
Could you love someone with different politics to you? While the text of this film is particularly rich with the history of Thailand, the depiction of how political polarisation separates people is a universal one for our ever-divided world.
[Jason MAHER]
- Director's Message
-
We live in a land where history has been held high up as sacred scripture, untouched by any narratives. How can that happen? The answer probably lies in a story that has been a cloud over Thailand for ages. We explore the relationship of the Thai people's political and royal history, the effect of the grandeur of the biggest fairytale that has been told in our lifetime. How that can affect people who live here. I’m interested in exploring the more subtle structural violence of institutions that populate our every day in this nation.
To my mind, this is a more dangerous kind of violence, as it is in the process of becoming gentrified and normalized. This is a violence that doesn’t stir us into action and resistance but instead seduces and lures us into inaction.