Arak Amornsupasiri, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Achtara Suwan
Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong’s mesmerising second feature (following her arresting 2009 debut Mundane History) explores the lingering trauma of the 1977 government-sanctioned massacre of student demonstrators in Bangkok.
A shape-shifting narrative around memory, politics and cinema, it weaves together the stories of several characters. A pair of actors are going in different directions. A young waitress keeps changing jobs. A filmmaker interviews an author whose life was transformed by the activism of her youth.
Filled with stunning images and constantly incorporating new subjects and ideas, Suwichakornpong’s film interrogates her characters slowly and with great depth; showing how their questions about their lives, their actions and identities have been formed or haunted in some way by their country’s troubled recent past.
