'Clouds' in the forecast

Lee Chatametikool’s “concrete Clouds” is among the highlights of a generous Thai selection at next month’s Busan International Film Festival.

The directorial-debut feature by Lee, an editor and post-production supervisor on many Thai films, “Concrete Clouds” makes its world premiere in the New Currents competition. It stars Ananda everingham as a currency trader who returns to Thailand after his father commits suicide at the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Janesuda Parnto and Apinya Sakuljaroensuk also star.

Long in the works, “Concrete Clouds” was given a big boost in this year’s round of the Busan fest’s Asian Cinema Fund. Producers include Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Anocha Suwichakornpong, returning the favours Lee did for them in editing their films, along with Sylvia Chang and Soros Sukhum.

Another Thai entry in the New Currents is “The Isthmus”, a drama by Peerachai Kerdsint and Sopawan boonnimitra. It’s about an eight-year-old girl who suddenly loses her ability to speak Thai after her family’s Burmese maid dies. “Believing her daughter is spiritually bound to the dead woman, Da and her child journey to a Thai-Burmese border town to ask the maid’s only relative to sever the connection,” reads the programme notes.

The Midnight Passion selection offers a dose of crowd-pleasing Thai horror with the smash-hit ghost comedy “Pee Mak” and the international festival premiere of “Last Summer” (“Rue Doo Ron Nan Chan Tai”), a three-segment teen thriller by Kittithat Tangsirikit, Sittisiri Mongkolsiri and Saranyoo Jiralak.

Saranyoo also has his acclaimed drama “Together” making its international premiere in the Window on Asian Cinema programme.

And, having premiered at the Venice fest, last year’s Busan New Currents Award winner Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit has his Twitter movie “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy” also in the Window.

Thai indie helmer Aditya Assarat is among six directors taking part in “Letters from the South”, an omnibus about the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. Others are Tsai Ming-Liang, Malayasia’s Tan Chui Mui, Singapore’s Royston Tan and Sun Koh and Myanmar’s Midi Z.

Also of local interest, there’s Australian director Kim Mordaunt’s Lao-Isaan family tale “The Rocket”, which has been a big hit on the festival circuit this year.

From elsewhere around Southeast Asia, highlights include “Toilet Blues” by Indonesia’s Dirmawan Hatta in the New Currents, and in the Window on Asian Cinema, actor Dustin Nguyen’s directorial debut “Once Upon a Time in Vietnam”, Lav Diaz’ “Norte, the End of History”, Brillante Mendoza’s “Sapi”, Adolf Alix Jr’s “Death March” and Jerrold Tarog’s “If Only” from the Philippines, the Malaysian short-film collection “Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories”, Anthony Chen’s “Ilo Ilo” from Singapore and “What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love” from Indonesia’s Mouly Surya.

The festival’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year honour will go to cambodian director Rithy Panh, recognising his efforts to preserve his country’s films and audio-visual materials. Panh, who lost his family in a refugee camp during the Khmer Rouge regime, won the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with “The Missing Picture”, in which he retold the history of Cambodia with elaborate dioramas.

Selected as curtain-raiser for the festival is “Vara: A Blessing”, the third film by Bhutanese former lama Khyentse Norbu (“The Cup”). He wrote the screenplay based on an Indian short story “Rakta Aar Kanna” (“Blood and Tears”). Through south India’s bharatanatyam classical dance,  the movie tells a story of love, self-sacrifice and a woman’s strength in adversity.

“The Dinner”, an indie film by South Korean director Kim Dong-Hyun, will close the event. It recreates a series of misfortunes that could happen to any ordinary family.

Busan will also offer a special retrospective of around 70 signature films by South Korean director Im Kwon-taek along with special screenings of films from Central Asia.