An ensemble of four Thai short films has been selected to screen at the 71st Cannes Film Festival next month.
Ten Years Thailand asks four filmmakers to imagine the state of Thailand in the future, 10 years specifically, and reflect upon the changes and challenges the country is likely to face. This is a Thai spinoff of the original Ten Years by a group of Hong Kong filmmakers who speculated the dystopian future of the territory under the Chinese rule.
The four Thai filmmakers in Ten Years Thailand are: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who won the festival’s top prize in 2010 from Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives; Wisit Sasanatieng, whose postmodern cowboy film Tears of the Black Tiger screened at Cannes in 2000; Aditya Assarat, a well-known director of the post-tsunami film Wonderful Town; and Chulayarnnon Siriphol, an upcoming artist/filmmaker known for his oddball humour.
The film will be screened in the Special Screening section, a sidebar reserved for projects that pursue special political or social issues.
The four films in Ten Years Thailand touch on various topics and display a measure of critique on the social situation through symbolism and humour. One film concerns a group of soldiers asked to inspect an art exhibition; another imagines Bangkok as a city populated by bloodthirsty cat people who persecute the remaining human population. Apichatpong’s film, which is most anticipated, concerns a man who tries to sell a sleep machine to a doctor.
The Ten Years project also has a Japanese version following the same concept, which is set to screen later this year.
Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to 19.
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