Onthakan
Tam, a timid loner, is bullied regularly by his fellow pupils at school. He is met with similar rejection and suspicion within the narrow confines of his parents’ dingy home, where his father beats him. One day Tam arranges online to meet Phum at a derelict swimming pool. They are both looking for sex, but their encounter leaves them with a feeling of comfort and security. A close bond develops between the two boys and, before long, they are roaming the rubbish heaps and dark corners of the city together, day and night. Phum opens a door for Tam, revealing a fantastical parallel universe full of spirits and dangerous encounters. Although he feels safe and loved for the first time in his life, Tam can no longer differentiate between dream and reality and finds himself increasingly drawn into a spiral of paranoia and violence.
In her feature debut Boonyawatana leads her protagonist into an ambiguous microcosm full of chasms, at the same time cleverly toying with the conventions of different genres.
details
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Runtime
97 min -
Country
Thailand -
Year of Presentation
2015 -
Year of Production
2015 -
Director
Anucha Boonyawatana -
Cast
Atthaphan Poonsawas, Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang, Duangjai Hirunsri -
Production Company
G Village Co-Creation Hub -
Berlinale Section
Panorama -
Berlinale Category
Feature Film
pictures from the movie
Biography Anucha Boonyawatana
Born in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand in 1981, she is a director and founder of G-Motif Production video production company. Her graduation film DOWN THE RIVER (2004), in which she combined a homosexual love story with Buddhist philosophy and Thai art, screened at numerous international festivals. Her web-film LOVE AUDITION was made in collaboration with a public health agency and Unesco. Her short film EROTIC FRAGMENTS NO. 1,2,3 screened in Competition at the Berlinale Shorts section in 2012. ONTHAKAN is her debut feature film.
Filmography Anucha Boonyawatana
2004 Down the River