Pattaya rolls out the movies

Thailand’s love affair with the silver screen has in the past two months extended to the World Film Festival of Bangkok and lesser but also intriguing movie gatherings like Chiang Mai’s Lifescapes Southeast Asian event and the Hua Hin and the Bangkok Experimental film festival. Plus there’s the array of French cinema currently touring upcountry.
Sunny Pattaya, as usual, refuses to be left out.
The Pattaya Rooftop Film Festival kicked off last month with Wolfgang Becker’s 2003 tragicomedy “Good Bye, Lenin!” and continues every Friday this month. The Goethe Institut and German embassy are sponsoring the free open-air screenings at the dusitD2 Baraguda Pattaya Hotel.
German movies are the ones on offer at the beach resort’s first-ever film festival, since it’s commemorating 150 years of diplomatic relations between our countries. BMW is providing most of the financial support.
Is your German a little rusty – or non-existent?
“The cinematic language is universal,” Goethe director Norbert Spitz points out.
“Watching films from around the world helps us understand the foreign and discover the familiar in the foreign. With this project, we show that the cultural sector and the private sector together can achieve something that would be much harder to achieve for either of the two alone.”
And the dusitD2’s breezy Sunset Lounge up on the roof is perfect for this new Pattaya experience, says the hotel’s Serm Phenjati.
Serm expects the festival to broaden in scope over time, building on the concept of cultural exchange. The hotel will also screen movies on weekend every winter and summer.
Nearly 100 mostly expatriates and tourists were on hand last Friday, sipping wine and beer while “Soul Kitchen” played.
The 2009 film by Fatih Akin – a Turk living in Germany – delves into the German sub-culture with a portrayal of a man who must chose between his lover and his beloved restaurant in an old warehouse.
The Soul Kitchen is his whole life, with his pals playing music or poker or creating art every night. It’s a melting pot for soul searchers, but rarely turns a profit. So he wants his brother to take over the restaurant while he moves to Japan with his girlfriend.
The restaurant of the title reminded me of About Cafe a popular Bangkok meeting place in the 1990s for art-minded people of many nationalities. About Cafe provided the template for more such places both here and in Japan.

 WHAT’S UP
Tonight: “Cherry Blooms”
March 9: “Knallhart” (“Tough Enough”)
March 16: “Lola Rennt” (“Run Lola Run”)
March 26: “Status Yo!”
March 30: “Das Leben der Anderen” (“The Life of Others”)
There is no admission charge. Find out more at (038) 769 999 and [email protected].