Archive of films 36 / 36

Thailand
2012, 68 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2013

36 is the number of shots on a standard role of analog film. 36 is the number of shots in this remarkably perceptive and liberal Thai film. It follows young Sai as she sets out to find some lost photographs because she has the feeling that, in losing them, she forfeited part of her memory and thus also her identity.

Synopsis

Sai’s job is to look for suitable locations for filmmakers and artists, which is one of the reasons she’s always shooting footage or recording data for her clients. When her computer dies and she loses a large amount of data, she begins to sense that part of her own memory has been wiped clean. She’s got to get it back at any cost. That means returning to old places and thoroughly reexperiencing what takes place there. As a result, a subtle romanticism and intimacy, in a form akin to similarly minimalistic films from South Asia, emerges out of ordinary – here considerably disjointed – situations. Although the movie lacks standard dramatic qualities, it would be inaccurate to speak of an absence of narrative, but rather of a tenuous storyline. No clear-cut resolution comes out of the film’s structure, but this doesn’t mean that the picture isn’t emotionally absorbing. However much, in our digitalized present, this perceptive and poetic film touches on issues of memory storage instead of constructing a plot, it manages to create an unforgettable magic.

About the director

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (b. 1984, Thailand) holds a master’s degree in Chinese from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. He attended the Berlinale Talent Campus but is otherwise a self-taught filmmaker who made a name for himself with his short films (roughly 20 in all, including Penguin, 2007; Français, 2009; Cherie Is Korean-Thai, 2010). He works as a film critic and is a scriptwriter for GTH, Thailand’s largest studio, where he penned the box office smash Bangkok Traffic Love Story (2009, dir. Adisorn Tresirikasem). He is a cofounder of the Thai film-activist group Third Class Citizen. The poetic picture 36 is his feature film debut.

Contacts

Pascale Ramonda
91 rue de Ménilmontant, 75020, Paris
France
E-mail: [email protected]

Pop Pictures Co., Ltd
, 10301, Bangkok
Thailand
Tel: +662 691 6770
www: www.pop-pictures-ltd.com

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Another View

Director:	Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Screenplay:	Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Dir. of Photography:	Pairach Khumwan
Music:	Wuttipong Leetrakul
Editor:	Chonlasit Upanigkit
Producer:	Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Production:	Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Cast:	Koramit Vajrasthira, Wanlop Rungkamjad, Nottapon Boonprakob, Siriporn Kongma
Contact:	Pascale Ramonda, Pop Pictures Co., Ltd