To watch Pimpaka Towira’s short films is to contemplate
silence and slowness. What is left unsaid echoes in what is said, what is left
unseen reverberates through what is seen. There are difficulties in
articulation, her films argue, not just because of complex personal
circumstances, but also due to ominous, hidden political forces.
A screening
of her short films took place as part of the National Youth Film Awards (NYFA) Conference
this year at *SCAPE. Towira is not only a filmmaker, but also a programme
director at the Singapore International Film Festival.
Pimpaka Towira is the
first female Thai filmmaker to be noticed by international viewers and critics
through her feature film debut One Night Husband (2003) which brought her
international fame. She writes, directs and produces all of her films, many of
which are critically acclaimed. She has also been invited to serve as a jury
member for many film festivals and won the Silpathorn Award in 2009,
distributed by the Ministry of Culture in Thailand.
This year's NYFA screened three of her short films:
Terribly Happy (30 min, 16mm, Color,
2011)
A
young soldier stationed in the troubled southern Thai region is on his annual
leave to his hometown in Udorn Thani. Upon his return, he finds out that
his girlfriend has settled with a new western lover in their village. He
blames it on his chosen military career, and starts to get angry at her
and everyone around him. But his sister reminds him that forgiveness is
not a difficult thing to do, but it has to start from within.
The Mother
The Mother (15 min Digital, Color,
2012)
On
the final day of her 13 year-old daughter’s funeral, the young girl’s
mysterious death is still haunting the mother’s mind. She needs to
find the answer for herself.
Prelude To The General (11 min,
Digital, Color, 2016)
In
an unspecified time and place, a young woman tries to help a middle-aged
masseuse escape from an imminent danger.
Her short
films are set in the Thai countryside and jungle,
and revels in images of haunting nature, solitude and beauty. The peripheral is
central in Towira’s work. She employs a slow cinema, one that takes its time to
unfold, moving from image to image almost with a quiet agony.
In Terribly Happy, which played at the
Berlinale in 2011, a young soldier returns from patrolling the rubber
plantations in southern Thailand, only to find out that his girlfriend has
moved in to live with a Western man. Much is left unsaid in this 30-minute
short, which hints at more sinister issues, like the politics of rubber plantations
in Thailand, the creeping invasion of the foreign into bucolic village life and
a man’s increasing isolation from home.
The Mother carries a similar thread of isolation, as a
mother grieves in the wake of her 13-year-old daughter’s death. The 15-minute
short has just two takes, and its pacing mirrors the building frustration of
the mother, dealing with sorrow, bureaucracy and unanswered questions
surrounding her daughter’s death. Visitors come to the funeral and sit and talk
with the mother on the floor, providing the little narrative exposition the
viewer grows increasingly desperate for. Where are we? Who is this “mother”?
Why is her daughter dead? What is the significance of her death? Guilt and
greed flicker at the edges of this short.
Prelude to the General borrows Towira’s usual rural
setting but blends her usual realistic tone with fantasy. The soundscape is
rich and haunting. A woman walks alone through a deserted building, and her
encounters challenge notions of what is “real.” Towira’s shots are laced with
an unshakable feeling of dread and danger, the camera hides behind door frames
and ornaments, lurking in the shadows. The short film is an expression of what
it means to harbour a secret, and the consequences that might follow.
Written by
Sara Merican