KRABI 2562
Anocha Suwichakornpong/Ben Rivers, Thailand 2019, 94 Min.

Krabi 2562 looks at the landscape and the history of the touristic destination Krabi in the South of Thailand. The filmmakers manage to capture the city in the moment of change, as the prehistoric and the new pasts - embodied by many protagonists - contest with the present.

ROOM WITH A COCONUT VIEW
Tulapop Saenjaroen, Thailand 2018, 28 Min.  

In Room with a coconut view Kanya guides her guest Alex through the beautiful scenery at the beach but Alex is unhappy with these sterile, touristic images and decides to explore by himself. The histories of Thai cinema and local corruption start to merge and one begins to question how much of our understanding of the world is shaped through film. Both films offer a satirical look into the touristic South of Thailand, which is known worldwide both as an “exotic paradise” and for its mass tourism, while putting the perspectives of the locals and of tourists up against each other.

After the screening there will be a discussion on Thai tourism + Opening Party with Thai food

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Sarnt Utamachote (ษาณฑ์ อุตมโชติ) is a nonbinary filmmaker and curator. They are a co-founder of un.thai.tled, an artist collective from the German-Thai diaspora, with whom they curated the un.thai.tled Film Festival Berlin and Beyond the kitchen: Stories from the Thai Park. Their video installation I Am Not Your Mother (2020) was exhibited at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and their short film Soy Sauce (2020) was screened at OutFest Fusion LA, Xposed Berlin, and Queer East London 2021, among others.

Rosalia Namsai Engchuan (โรสาลียา น้ำใส เอ่งฉ้วน) is a social anthropologist and artist living between Berlin and Southeast Asia. She is currently working with artists and cultural actors in Southeast Asia on artistic-theoretical interventions in problem clusters of modernity that go beyond climate change and the environmental crisis. Rosalia is a 2021 Goethe-Institut Fellow at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwartskunst Berlin and one of the founders of with the rubbles, a space for collective research in Berlin.

KARAOKE GIRL (สาวคาราโอเกะ)
Visra Vichit-Vadakan, Thailand 2013, 77 Min.

A young girl from the countryside, Sa, moves to the big city to support her family and ends up in sexwork. This kind of story has been told repeatedly in cinema, however never so fluid and poetic as this independent Thai film. The film focuses less on the transactions of sex for money and more on dreams and hopes - both of Sa and of others. Fiction and documentary seem to seamlessly melt into each other, bringing forth the multidimensional portrait of a karaoke girl.

WESTWÄRTS: SÜDOSTASIATINNEN IN DER BRD
Foundation for Women, Germany 1990, 50 Min.

Four women of the Southeast Asian Information Support in Bochum and Foundation for Women (FFW) in Bangkok together have made this reportage about the lives of Asian women in West Germany. Three stories bound together during one period of time - that of a Thai woman during divorce, of a Thai former sexworker and of an undocumented Filipina housemaid - reflect on their social interactions, their daily routines and discriminations they face.

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Ban-Ying is one of the oldest women’s projects working to combat human trafficking in Berlin. It campaigns for the rights of migrant women who have experienced violence, exploitation or human trafficking.

This road movie deals with the problem of a politically divided country, in which the south is marketed as a tourist paradise, while at the same time is in a state of emergency on the brink of a civil war. The young protagonist Laila travels with her brother, her boyfriend, and a soldier down to the southern part of Pattani province; the part of Thailand with a Muslim population. This trip thus becomes the moment of reflective understanding about the “differences”, which have been an issue in the eyes of many in other parts of the country.

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Pimpaka Towira was one of the first Thai filmmakers whose films were internationally successful. She served as a jury at international film festivals and was awarded the Silpathorn Award of the Thai Ministry of Culture in 2009.

Benjamaporn Rattanaraungdetch is a director of photography based in Germany and Thailand. She graduated from University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) and has been working for internationally acclaimed artists/filmmakers such as Pimpaka Towira, Arin Rungjang and Bussaraporn Thongchai.

In 1893, the first railway was constructed as a representation of technological advancement and economic vitality in Thailand/Siam. Today, however, if you look out the train window, you will only see rice fields and palm trees. The observations of the daily activities in the train spotlight the voices of a society that seemingly doesn’t know where it is going, even though the train has been travelling from north to south for over 100 years.

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Nut Srisuwanis living between Bangkok and Berlin. His works are inspired by urban life, the dynamics of people, atmospheres, and the structures of communities. His practice focuses on creating a dialogical space, where the borderline between being an audience and a participant is blurred. 

Deep South Young Filmmakers helps children from southern Thailand express their voices and exchange their experiences with others. The film project was initiated by Pimpaka Towira in 2019. Over the course of ten months, Pimpaka and her team of mentors worked together with the young filmmakers to produce a variety of short films. Pimpaka Towira will present three of these films in Berlin.

THE GHOST'S VIEW
Ajmal Rerngsamut, Thailand 2019, 19 Min.

THE LIFE
Muhamasubay Deng, Thailand 2019, 20 Min.

MELAGU
Nurdeen Kasor, Thailand 2019, 24 Min.

Supporting film: The Sea Recalls
Aekaphong Saransate, Thailand 2018, 28 Min.

In The Sea Recalls the director remembers his uncle, who along with his wife was murdered in his own house. One year after the incident, Aekaphong came back to his hometown to explore the past and deal with the absence of loved ones.

After the screening there will be a discussion about working with marginalized communities with Pimpaka Towira (Extra Virgin Films).

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Pimpaka Towira was one of the first Thai filmmakers whose films were internationally successful. She served as a jury at international film festivals and was awarded the Silpathorn Award of the Thai Ministry of Culture in 2009.

FFF (วิป)
Nonthachan Prakobsup (นนทจรรย์ ประกอบทรัพย์), Thailand 2017, 20 Min.    

FLUMMOXED COCOON (ดักแด้โกลาหล) 
Theerapat Wongpaisarnkit (ธีรภาส ว่องไพศาลกิจ), Thailand 2017, 28 Min.

THE MENTAL TRAVELLER
Taiki Sakpisit (ไทกิ ศักดิ์พิสิษฐ์), Thailand 2019, 18 Min.   

PLANETARIUM PROJECT (ท้องฟ้าจำลอง) 
Kritsamas Ualapun (กฤษฏิ์สมัชญ์ เอื้อละพันธุ์), Thailand 2017, 27 Min.

The short film programme Journeys of Urban Ghosts takes a look at the metropolis Bangkok, where various people live together and shape their surroundings. In FFF (2017), Bangkok becomes a source of trauma and pain, while Flummoxed Cocoon (2017) tracks how suppressed desires become the driving force for travelling. In Planetarium Project (2017) the concrete jungle marks the beginning, yet in The Mental Traveller (2019), it indicates a journey’s end. Afterwards, the performance Oh Missing Moon (2020) deals with homesickness as a dilemma of being unable to return to Thailand.

After the screening there will be a performance Oh Missing Moon from Theerawat Klangjareonchai, Kantatach Kijtikhun and Raksa Seelapan (un.thai.tled CTM 2020)

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SOIL WITHOUT LAND (ดินไร้แดน)
Nontawat Numbenchapol, Thailand 2019, 80 Min.

After fleeing the fighting between Burmese forces and the Shan minority, Jai Sang Lod arrives with his family in 2001 in a camp on the Thai border. There, he does his military service with the Shan State Army in order to obtain an identity card and state recognition. Against the backdrop of the conflicts between the Shan and Myanmar, Soil Without Land deals with the construction of masculinity in the military.

COMPLICATED HAPPINESS 
Rosalia Namsai Engchuan, Germany/Thailand 2020, 30 Min.

The supporting film Complicated Happiness shows the Thai community in Berlin against the background of colonial entanglements and sexual power relations. The film, created as a point of contact and in cooperation with the Thaipark community, deals with the notion of female power and the participation in a historiography that is mostly dominated by men.

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Nontawat Numbenchapol is a Thai film director and screenwriter, who is widely recognized for his documentary works. He has frequently collaborated on Cannes Palm d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s works. His films were screened at Berlinale, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. His film By the River (2013) became the first Thai film to receive the Special Mention award from the Locarno International Film Festival.

In a small Thai fishing village, a fisherman finds an unconscious, mute man; probably one of the many Rohinya refugees from Myanmar. The fisherman takes him home and gives him the name Thongchai. A few days later the fisherman disappears and Thongchai starts to take over his life, his home and his job. Instead of reproducing the usual media narratives about Rohingya refugees, the film portrays the complex dimensions and negotiations of power in everyday life.

After the screening there will be a discussion + Closing Party with southern Thai food

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Koen de Rooij is a film programmer specialised in East and South-East Asian cinema, and a part of the IFFR Short Film selection committee since 2017. His main interest lies in the continuing influences of national borders, migration and the colonial past. He holds MA degrees in Asian Studies and Media Studies from Leiden University.