Circles and a dream

Thai independent cinema was once again in the spotlight over the weekend as “Vanishing Point”, a film by Jakrawal Nilthamrong, picked up the much-coveted Hivos Tiger Award at the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam 

Two other films also received a Tiger Award from the festival, which recognises promising filmmakers from all around the world: “The Project of the Century” (“La Obra Del Siglo”), a film in black-and-white by Carlos M Quintella from Cuba and the Peruvian experimental movie “Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes)” by Juan Daniel F Molero.

Since 1995 many of the filmmakers awarded at the event have gone on to become important names in the world of international cinema, among them Hong Sang-Soo, Lou Ye and Christopher Nolan. 

Thai cinema was recognised with its first Tiger Award in 2008 for Aditya Assarat’s “Wonderful Town”. Anocha Suwichakornpong’s “Mundane History” won the prize in 2010 and Sivaroj Kongsakul brought home the award in 2011 with his first feature film “Eternity”. 

A familiar face in Rotterdam, Jakrawal has been coming to the festival since 2008 when his “Patterns of Transcendence”, a graduation project from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, was screened. 

 In 2010, he participated in a special project of the festival in making a film in Africa. The result was the hybrid documentary “Unreal Forest”. 

“Vanishing Point”, which he made with the support of his friends and the Rotterdam fest’s Hubert Bals Fund, is his first full-length feature and was the only Thai film selected for this year’s Tiger competition. 

“I received the script development fund from International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2009.” Jakrawal, says of the making of “Vanishing Point”, which has taken a full six years.

“The details in the story have changed but the structure is the same. It’s about the circle of life, birth, suffering, death, and mindfulness,” he says. 

Inspired by Win Leowarin and Rong Wongsawan’s short stories, “Vanishing Point” is a non-narrative feature that starts with a compilation of car accidents photos, one of them, interestingly, of his parents’ car after it was hit by a train. Both of them survived, but the traumatic event affected the entire family.

“I was only five when my parents parked their car on the rail at Laksi and the train came. My father was a soldier but after the accident, he couldn’t go back to work because of a brain injury.” 

From these photos, the story shifts to a young man and his meeting with an old prostitute in the shabby Araya (Civilised) Motel. Yai, the motel owner, watches customers having sex through a surveillance camera. In fact, most of the film focuses on this voyeur played by Ongart Cheamcharoenpornkul, as he searches for his missing daughter in and around the border town where his family lives. 

“Like many other people, Yai has two sides to his character. He’s a voyeur and has affairs with other women, but he is also a good Buddhist who always goes to the temple,” Jakrawal explains.

A former creative director for the small screen, part-time actor and director of the 2010 horror comedy “H2-OH!” (“Nam Pee Nong Sayong Kwan”), Ongart was in fact Jakrawal’s second choice to play the voyeur.

“I wanted [musician] Manote Puttan to play Yai but it was inappropriate because it involves Buddhism and he is Muslim. Later I met Ongart, who was one of my seniors at university. Ongart is a storyteller and his talent for storytelling was important to the film”, the director explains. 

The film was shot in the provinces of Sa Kaew and Ratchaburi bordering Cambodia and Myanmar respectively.

“We didn’t want to show clearly where the story takes place. In fact, I try not to specify either space and time in the film,” says the director, who makes full use of the buildings and forests in both provinces as well as Sa Kaew’ famed butterfly festival.

“I’m really surprised to have done so well,” Jakrawal says, adding that he certainly didn’t expect his film to win a Tiger award.

“The other titles in competition were very good, so I didn’t expect much. I just wanted to earn enough money to pay my debts from the production. I wasn’t even going to attend the ceremony but a friend told me I must, so it was like a hint that I was going to get something.”

“Vanishing Point” will continue its journey on the film festival circuit and will likely have its Asian premiere soon. It is being distributed by Diversion, the new sales outfit founded by Mai Meksawan, aformer programmer of the Bangkok International Film Festival. No release for Thailand has been scheduled though it is hoped that the Rotterdam win will help attract local interest in the film.

The other Thai films screened at the Rotterdam festival though not in the Tiger award competition included Sorayos Prapapan’s short, the black comedy “Auntie Maam Has Never Had a Passport”, Pathompon Tespreateep’s experimental outing “Endless Nameless” and Nitas Sinwattanakul’s horror movie “Deleted”.