A celebration of Asean cinema

The festival, which continues through July 8, opens with Indonesian drama “Memories of My Body” by veteran director Garin Nugroho, who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Nugrohoo’s movies combine Javanese tradition and aesthetics with socio-political messages and sometimes poetic language and offer a fascinating overview of the visible and invisible transformation of Indonesia in the past three decades.
“Memories” centres on Juno who was abandoned by his father as a child. Growing up in a Javanese village, he joins a Lengger dance centre where men shape their feminine appearance and movement. But the sensuality and sexuality that come from dance and bodies mixed with the violent social and political Indonesian environment, force Juno to move from village to village.
And while he receives attention and love from his dance teachers, his weird aunt, his old uncle, a handsome boxer and a Warok, he is alone in facing the battlefield that his body is becoming. 

The screening is by invitation only.

“Memories of My Body”

Organized by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with the National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Association as well as other state agencies and private partners, and programmed by Pimpaka Towira, the Asean Competition section will feature 10 films, two from Thailand – “Kraben Rahu” or “Manta Ray” and “Hope Frozen”, two from Cambodia (“Funan”, “Last Night I Saw You Smiling”), one from Indonesia (“Ave Maryam”), two from the Philippines (“Gusto Kita with All My Hypothalamus”, “Balangiga: Howling Wilderness”), one from Singapore “A Land Imagined”), one from Malaysia (“Fly by Night”), and one from Vietnam (“The Third Wife”).
“Funan”, the only animation in the competition, is a collaboration between Cambodia, Belgium and France and is set in 1975 during the Khmer Rouge revolution. Fighting for her own survival, Chou, a young Cambodian mother, looks for her 4-year-old son who was taken away from her by the regime.

Three prizes are up for grabs – Best ASEAN Film, Jury Prize and Special Mention. The first sees its director take home a trophy and $10,000 while the other two receive trophies and $5,000 and $2,000 respectively. A panel of three will judge the 10 films in the competition, namely filmmaker Phan Dang Di from Vietnam, Curator and Coordinator of the Brave Talk from the International Film
Festival Rotterdam Muge Demir from the Netherlands and filmmaker Anucha Boonyawatana from Thailand.
Sixteen more films will be screened in the showcase section including blockbuster Thai movie “Friend Zone” and “Malila” (“The Farewell Flower”), the Thai animation “Ramavatar Murals Brought to Life”, “The Only Mom” a Myanmar film directed by a Thai filmmaker, “Surau dan Silek” from Indonesia and “Song Lang” from Vietnam.

"A Land Imagined" from Singapore

This year’s Classic Film segment shows “Moon Over Malaya” from Malaysia and Singapore; “Genghis Khan” from the Philippines and “Ai Tui” from Thailand. Audiences can also enjoy “Every Day a Good Day” from Japan, China’s “Running to the
Spring” and “A Boy and Sungreen” from South Korea.
Despite the wide variety and earlier screenings, Thai films are proving the most popular this year with several of them already fully booked, namely “Friend Zone”, “Manta Ray”, which won Orizzonti award from the Venice International Film Festival last year, and “Hope Frozen” – an award-winning documentary about two-year-old Einz, who became the youngest person in the world to undergo cryo-preservation. After her death from brain cancer, her family stored her remains in an American lab. Her head and brain now rest inside a tank in Arizona. “Hope Frozen” follows the family who made this unorthodox decision. The girl’s father, a laser
scientist, yearns to give Einz the opportunity to experience a rebirth inside a regenerated body.
The opening ceremony will take place on July 3 at Infinicity Hall, Paragon Cineplex, while the award ceremony and closing event will be on July 8 at the Sky Lobby, SF World Cinema. Another highlight is a program called Roundtable, a talk and workshop series organized by Purin Pictures Foundation featuring sessions with leading filmmakers from the region. Some of the highlights are the female cinematographer’s eye, “Path Forward for Documentaries” and a spotlight on Phuttipong Aroonpheng and his eight-year journey making the film “Manta Ray”.
The roundtable will take place at the auditorium of Alliance Francaise Bangkok from July 4 to 7.
For more details about the talk and workshop, visit www.PurinRoundtable.org
All films will be screened with Thai and English subtitles and tickets must be reserved in advance at Facebook: BangkokAseanFilmFestival and collected 30 minutes before show time.
Admission is free.
For more information and festival updates, call (02) 643 9100 or visit Facebook.com/BangkokAseanFilmFestival.